
Class 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



STUDIES 



IN 



PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 



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BY 



FRANK PODMORE,- M.A. 
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Author of "Apparitions and Thought 
Transference " 



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r G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



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NEW YORK LONDON 




27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, 


STRAND 


&fje Knickerbocker $)re8S 




1897 
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Copyright, 1897 

BY 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 



tEbe IRnicfcetrbocfcer tf>rees, 1Rew Uorfe 



PREFACE. 

I DESIRE, in the first place, to record my obli- 
gations to Professor Henry Sidgwick and 
Mrs. Sidgwick, who have read through nearly the 
whole of my book in typescript, and have given me 
the benefit of their advice throughout. But in 
rendering this acknowledgment I should explain 
that, whilst we are, I believe, in complete agree- 
ment as to the attitude of mind in which the ques- 
tions here discussed should be approached, and the 
general methods by which they should be inves- 
tigated, the responsibility for the conclusions ex- 
pressed rests on myself alone. 

The greater part of Chap. VI. appeared in Time 
for February, 1886, and Chaps. V. and X. are 
based upon articles contributed to the Proceedings 
of the Society for Psychical Research. Of the il- 
lustrative narratives quoted, the greater number 
are taken from the same source, or from the 
monthly Journal and other unpublished records of 
the Society. I desire to acknowledge the courtesy 
which has placed these materials at my disposal. 

F. P. 

February, 1897. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

PAGES 

Attitude of the educated world in general — The need of 
an extended and systematic enquiry — Founding of 
the Society for Psychical Research — Its methods 
and aims — The author's individual responsibility 
for the views here expressed 1-8 

CHAPTER II. 

SPIRITUALISM AS A POPULAR MOVEMENT. 

Its origin, history, and wide-spread influence — Scientific 
interest in the subject — The movement as a whole 
essentially unscientific — Its character illustrated by 
the history of various exposures of fraud — Williams 
and Rita — Mrs. Corner — Miss Wood — Saadi and 
Wamik — Theology and philosophy of the movement — 
Stainton Moses — Serjeant Cox — Professor Hare and 
others — Rise of Theosophy and kindred mysticisms 9-41 

CHAPTER III. 

THE PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 

Experiments by MM. Thury and de Gasparin — Dr. 
Hare — The Committee of the London Dialectical 
Society — Evidence of the Master of Lindsay — 
Experiments by Mr. Crookes — The mediumship of 
Mr. Stainton Moses — Experiments by Professor 
Zollner and others ...... 42-80 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

SPIRITUALISM AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

PAGES 

Investigations of the S. P R. — Eusapia Palladino — Mrs. 
H. Sidgwick's experiences — Reichenbach's phenom- 
ena — Spirit photography — Slate writing — Dr. Hodg- 
son's analysis of the evidence — Mr. Davey's imita- 
tion of the phenomena — Disinterested fraud — Some 
general propositions — Examination of the evidence 
quoted in Chapter III. — Insufficient to prove a new 
force — Indications of hallucination — Conclusion 

Appendix : Note on the alleged spirit-commun- 
ication of Mr. Stainton Moses .... 81-133 

CHAPTER V. 

POLTERGEISTS. 

Outbreaks of bell-ringing and physical disturbances — 
The antiquity of the phenomena — The Worksop 
case — Durweston — Arundel — The Ham case — The 
Wem case and others — Various cases in which no 
trickery has been actually detected — Detailed ana- 
lysis of the evidence — Conclusion: That the alleged 
phenomena are due in the first instance to trick- 
ery, magnified by malobservation and errors of 
memory 134-162 

CHAPTER VI. 

MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THEOSOPHY. 

Origin of the movement — Its cosmology, philosophy, and 
theology — The revelation attested by miracles — The 
S. P. R. sends a commissioner to India — Collapse 
of the case for the miracles — Koot Hoomi letters 
shown to be forgeries — Later evidence — The early 
history of Madame Blavatsky — Solovyoff's inter- 
course with Madame Blavatsky . . . 163-194 



CONTENTS. Vii 

CHAPTER VII. 

EXPERIMENTAL THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE. 

PAGES 

Various errors to be guarded against — Fraud, chance co- 
incidence, association of ideas, involuntary com- 
munication of information — Experiments at close 
quarters — In the normal state, by Dr. Blair Thaw, 
Mr. H. G. Rawson, Mrs. A. W. Verrall — In sleep, by 
Dr. Ermacora — In trance, with subject in another 
room, by Professor and Mrs. H. Sidgwick — Pro- 
duction of movements and other effects — Experi- 
ments at a distance — By Professor Janet and Dr. 
Gibert, by Rev. A. Glardon, by Miss Campbell and 
Miss Despard — Diaries of telepathic impressions 195-233 

CHAPTER VIII. 

TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATIONS. 

Errors to be guarded against — Fraud, chance coincid- 
ence, fallacies of memory — Transference of ideas 
and waking impressions : Mr. Keulemans, Professor 
Alexander — Telepathic Dreams : Mr. F. Wingfield 
— Telepathic hallucinations: — Auditory: Miss King — 
Visual-experimental hallucinations : Rev. C. God- 
frey — Spontaneous : Prince Victor Duleep Singh, 
Miss Hurley, Miss Hervey, Frances Reddell — Col- 
lective : Dr. W. O. S. and wife — Conclusion . 234-267 

CHAPTER IX. 

GHOSTS. 

Influence of pre-conceived ideas on the testimony — 
Collective apparitions, a. Unrecognised : Mrs. E. F. 
and sister ; curious phantasmagoria : Mrs. Willett, 
Miss Du Cane ; b. Recognised: Miss Newbold, Mr. 
and Mrs. J. C, Miss C. N. and others, Mr. and Mrs. 
Davis — Solitary apparitions, a. Conveying news of 



Vlll CON TENTS. 

PAGES 

death: Rev. C. Wambey, Miss Kitching, Mrs. C. T. 
Haly, Miss , Mr. G. King ; Discussion ; b. Con- 
veying other information : Mrs. Green, Col. H 

c. Identified subsequently : Mr. Husbands, Mrs. 
, Mr. Tyre — Discussion — Evidence found in- 
conclusive 268-297 

CHAPTER X. 

HAUNTED HOUSES. 

Popular idea of a ghost — Six main features — (1) Identity 
of the figure: Cases i, 2, 3 — (2) Recognition of the 
figure : Case 4 — (3) Manifestation of purpose : 
Case 5 — (4) Connection with human remains — or 
(5) with a tragedy : Cases 6, 7, 8, 9 — (6) Recur- 
rence at fixed dates — The evidence found not to 
justify hypothesis of post-mortem agency, though pre- 
senting certain characteristics which seem to point 
to telepathic origin ...... 298—335 

CHAPTER XI. 

PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 

Large amount of testimony, and widespread belief in the 
subject — Narratives of two kinds — Symbolic and 
direct — Discussion of symbolic premonitions — Case 1 — 
Evidence found to be in many ways defective — 
Direct premonitions — Fetches — Auditory cases — 
Visions — Prediction at seances, Case 2 — Dreams : 
General discussion on dream-evidence — Pro- 
fessor Royce's pseudo-presentiments — Cases 3, 4 
— Specimens of dream-evidence in general — Cases 
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 — General characteristics of the 
evidence — Conclusion : That a belief in the pos- 
sibility of supernormal foreknowledge is not 
justed 33 6 -374 



CONTENTS. ix 

CHAPTER XII. 

SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 

PAGES 

Mr. Myers's view — Secondary consciousness in normal 
state — Automatic actions and dreams — Professor 
Hilprecht's experiences — Induced secondary con- 
sciousuess — The hypnotic trance — Madame B. — Re- 
lation of the hypnotic to the waking consciousness 
— Post-hypnotic premises — Mr. Gurney's experi- 
ments — Secondary consciousness in pathological cases 
— Cases of Mr. Joy, Felida X., Ansel Bourne, 
Lucie, Views held by Myers, Carpenter, Heiden- 
hain, Ribot, Azam, Janet — Discussion . . 375-416 

CHAPTER XIII. 

IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 

Natural growth of secondary personality in trance — 
"Adrienne "— " Clelia "— " Dr. Phinuit "— On clair- 
voyance — Observations by Rev. P. H. Newnham, Miss 
Busk, Professor C. Richet, Mr. Ankarkrona, Mr. 
Dobbie, Dr. Ferroul — Spontaneous possession : the 
case of Lurancy Vennum — Possession in trance — 
Mrs. Piper — Evidence of Professor W. James, Mr. 
J. T. Clarke, Prof. Oliver Lodge, Dr. R. Hodgson 
— Conclusion ....... 417-454 

Mex 455 



STUDIES IN 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

WHEN Boswell suggested that second-sight 
and other mysterious manifestations might 
be explained by chance-coincidence, Dr. Johnson 
replied : " Yes, sir ; but they have happened so often 
that mankind have agreed to think them not for- 
tuitous." This attitude of hospitality towards 
the marvellous is no doubt less general than 
in Dr. Johnson's day. Nevertheless there are 
still to be found a considerable number of per- 
sons, many of them qualified by education and 
experience to judge of the matter, who believe 
in the occurrence of second sight, clairvoyance, 
death-wraiths, and kindred phenomena at the 
present day. So recently as last Christmas a 
leading London newspaper, in dealing with one 
of those mysterious outbreaks which are discussed 
in Chapter V. of the present book, summed up 
its comments on the case as follows : " The knocks 



2 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

of Edithweston must be added to the already 
rather long list of noises probably not to be ex- 
plained until our knowledge of the physical world 
connects it more closely with the psychical." In- 
deed, if we exclude those whose training in the 
physical sciences has given them defined, perhaps 
too rigidly defined, ideas of the working and limita- 
tions of natural forces, the attitude of the educated 
world in general will be found to have undergone 
but little alteration since the last century. It is no 
longer indeed one of active recognition, but it is 
almost equally far removed, if we may rely on the 
testimony of newspapers, novels, and our non-scien- 
tific literature generally, from contemptuous rejec- 
tion. It may perhaps be described as a cross-bench 
mind. And there are many who have exchanged 
this tolerant scepticism for a definite belief founded, 
as they aver, on evidence hardly less cogent than 
that which supports many of the accepted general- 
isations of physical science. Twenty years ago the 
number of these believers was much greater and 
the things which they believed much more difficult 
of acceptance. The number of avowed Spiritual- 
ists in this country and the States at that time 
might be reckoned probably by tens of thousands : 
some spiritualistic writers claimed millions. The 
Theosophists, too, in their heyday formed a body 
of not inconsiderable proportions. And outside 
those who were adherents of one or other of these 
definite creeds, there was a large and growing body 
of persons who found in the reported marvels of the 



IN TR 01) UC TORY. 3 

seance room, in the tales of ghosts and haunted 
houses, of clairvoyance, of warning dreams and vis- 
ions, and not least in the then unfamiliar phenom- 
ena of hypnotism, something which they could 
not explain, or could explain only — ignotum per 
ignotius — by a reference to "occult" forces. 

Now all these beliefs, even in their most grotesque 
form, were avowedly founded on evidence, and on 
evidence which in many cases prima facie suggested 
and warranted the belief. The existence of such 
rational belief (I use the word without prejudging 
the value of the reasoning by which the belief was 
supported), and above all the existence of so large 
a body of believers, furnished, in the view of those 
who founded the Society for Psychical Research, 
sufficient justification for the examination of the 
marvels reported. For the uncritical rejection of 
the whole matter, which was the only articulate 
alternative to an acceptance often equally uncritical, 
seemed as irrational as it was certainly inconclusive. 
If the things alleged, or any of them, were true, it 
was highly important for them to be recognised and 
incorporated with the organised results of Science. 
If untrue, it was scarcely less important to inquire 
how they came to be accepted. The obiter dictum 
of the one party that the other party were all knaves 
or fools seemed hardly an adequate account of the 
matter, seeing that the other party included many 
persons of unquestioned probity and intelligence 
and some few men of eminence in various fields of 
human activity, including even the physical sciences. 



4 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Neither category, if we turn to a later date, could 
seem finely appropriate for such names — of those 
whom death has removed from our muster roll — as 
Balfour Stewart, Heinrich Hertz, Edmund Gurney,, 
or Harvey Goodwin. 

It was in the early months of 1882 that the 
Society for Psychical Research was founded, under 
the Presidency of Professor H. Sidgwick, 1 with 
aims which are thus stated in its first manifesto : 

It has been widely felt that the present is an opportune time 
for making an organised and systematic attempt to investigate 
that large group of debatable phenomena designated by such 
terms as mesmeric, pyschical, and spiritualistic. 

From the recorded testimony of many competent witnesses, 
past and present, including observations recently made by 
scientific men of eminence in various countries, there appears 
to be, amidst much delusion and deception, an important body 
of remarkable phenomena, which are prima facie inexplicable 
on any generally recognised hypothesis, and which, if incon- 
testably established, would be of the highest possible value. 

The task of examining such residual phenomena has often 
been undertaken by individual effort, but never hitherto by a 
scientific society organised on a sufficiently broad basis. 

Six Committees were forthwith appointed to take 
over different parts of the wide field of inquiry, 
viz. : 

1. An examination of the nature and extent of any influence 
which may be exerted by one mind upon another, apart from 
any generally recognised mode of perception. 

1 The other Presidents of the Society since its foundation to the present 
time have been Prof. Balfour Stewart, F.R.S. ; the Right Hon. A. J. Bal- 
four, M.P., F.R.S. ; Prof. William James (of Harvard), and Mr. William 
Crookes, F.R.S., and the President for 1896, and for the current year. 



IN TROD UCTOR Y. 5 

2. The study of hypnotism,' and the forms of so-called mes- 
meric trance, with its alleged insensibility to pain ; clairvoy- 
ance, and other allied phenomena. 

3. A critical revision of Reichenbach's researches with cer- 
tain organisations called " sensitive," and an inquiry whether 
such organisations possess any power of perception beyond a 
highly exalted sensibility of the recognised sensory organs. 

4. A careful investigation of any reports, resting on strong 
testimony, regarding apparitions at the moment of death, or 
otherwise, or regarding disturbances in houses reputed to be 
haunted. 

5. An inquiry into the various physical phenomena com- 
monly called Spiritualistic ; with an attempt to discover their 
causes and general laws. 

6. The collection and collation of existing materials bearing 
on the history of these subjects. 

In the chapters which follow, an attempt will be 
made to estimate the value of the work done up to 
the present time by the Society through its Com- 
mittees, and by individual members, on the several 
lines of inquiry thus mapped out, and to sketch 
briefly the conclusions reached or indicated at the 
present stage. 

Before I pass to this detailed examination of the 
results attained, a few words may fitly be said on 
the spirit and method of these investigations. We 
did not, as already said, in undertaking the inquiry 
assume to express any opinion beforehand on the 
value of the evidence to be examined. Whatever 
the private bias of individual members towards be- 
lief or disbelief, it cannot fairly be said that any 
such bias has been allowed to pervert the methods 
of the inquiry. To ascertain the facts of the case, 



6 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

at whatever cost to established opinions and pre- 
judices, has been the consistent aim of the Society 
and its workers. If some of our investigations 
have resulted in the detection of imposture, the 
discovery of unsuspected fallacies of sense and 
memory, and the general disintegration of some 
imposing structures built upon too narrow founda- 
tions ; whilst others have revealed the occurrence 
of phenomena which neither chance nor fraud nor 
fallacy of sense can plausibly explain, and for which 
the present scientific synthesis can as yet find no 
place, it is pertinent to remember that the inves- 
tigators were in each case the same, the methods 
pursued were the same, and the object in all cases 
was simply the discovery of the truth. 

There is another not unnatural misconception of 
the nature of our work. Though fraud, and fraud 
of a particularly gross kind, is the most active force 
in producing some of the spurious marvels which 
have been the subject of our inquiries, yet fraud is 
on the whole neither the most prolific nor the most 
dangerous source of error. In our experimental 
work in thought-transference and the like, we have 
had mainly to guard against an innocent deception 
— and the more insidious because innocent, — the sub- 
conscious communication of information by indica- 
tions too subtle to be apprehended by the normal 
self, but readily seized upon and interpreted by the 
automatic or somnambulic consciousness. And in 
that part of our work where experiment is pre- 
cluded by the nature of the facts, and which has ( 



IN TRODUC TOR Y. J 

consisted, therefore, mainly in obtaining and record- 
ing the testimony of others to such spontaneous 
phenomena as visions and apparitions, the real 
source of error is again the sub-conscious sophistica- 
tion of the record owing to the instinctive tendency 
of the imagination to dramatic unity and complete- 
ness. This tendency is examined and illustrated in 
various parts of the book. 1 It is enough to say 
here that our researches have led us gradually to 
attach more and more importance to the effect of 
time on the value of testimony. Consider, for in- 
stance, the narratives of prophetic dreams dealt 
with in Chapter XL The alleged coincidences — 
many of them of the most conclusive kind — are not 
wholly due to chance and probably not in any ap- 
preciable degree due to culpable negligence or ex- 
aggeration, and still less to conscious bad faith, on 
the part of those who have supplied us with inform- 
ation, often with considerable expenditure of time 
and trouble and at the cost of unwelcome publicity. 
But a careful comparison of the most recent cases 
with those more remote reveals an ever ascending 
scale of marvel, and points to a general and hither- 
to imperfectly appreciated mental tendency, operat- 
ing with almost the inevitableness of a natural law. 
There is but one more word to say here. Neither 
the Society nor any of my colleagues are in any way 
committed to the views expressed in this book. 
The reader should on this account pardon a certain 
apparent egotism in the treatment : the first person 

1 See especially Chapters V., IX., X., and XI. 



8 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

singular has often been chosen deliberately, where 
custom would have prescribed a less direct form of 
statement, in order to emphasise this individual 
responsibility. The book then represents my in- 
dividual impressions of the results of our fifteen 
years' work. 

More than one view is possible of the general 
effect of the evidence. To some of my colleagues, 
it seems to indicate that thought can influence 
thought, untrammelled by the machinery of sense 
organs and ethereal undulations ; that the human 
soul can, while still attached to the body, transcend 
the limits of space and time and the laws of the 
physical world ; and can after the death of the body 
prevail to make its presence known to us here. To 
my thinking, the evidence is too slender and too 
ambiguous to bear the weight of such tremendous 
issues ; and though I hold that there are grounds 
sufficient to justify telepathy as a working hypothe- 
sis, the proof of its transcendental nature is still 
wanting. 



CHAPTER II. 

SPIRITUALISM AS A POPULAR MOVEMENT. 

CONCURRENTLY with the immense expan- 
sion and development, during the last half 
century, of our knowledge of the material world, 
there has come a striking recrudescence in civilised 
countries of the old-time belief in agencies working 
outside and beyond physical nature. The modern 
revival, to go no farther back, may be said to date 
from the " Rochester knockings," curious raps oc- 
curring in the presence of two or three members of 
the Fox family living in Rochester, New York, in 
the year 1848. From this small beginning, the 
occurrence of mysterious raps betraying an intelli- 
gent source, and referred by some to the agency of 
spirits, by others to supernormal powers exercised 
unconsciously by the " Mediums," and by a few 
scientific men, who investigated the occurrences at 
the time, to voluntary " cracking" (z*. e. partial dis- 
location ) of the knee-joints on the part of the girls 
concerned, arose the whole movement of Modern 
Spiritualism. 

The phenomena did not stop here. Within the 
course of the next few years, the press of the world 
recorded other marvels too numerous to detail. 

9 



10 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

These may be roughly classified under two main 
heads, (a) There were first the physical phenom- 
ena, such as the raps already mentioned (which 
shortly became the recognised mode of communi- 
cation with the " spirits " ) ; movements of furniture 
and small objects ; playing of musical instruments 
without apparent contact ; the appearance of so- 
called " materialised " spirit-forms ; the levitation 
of the human body ; " apports " of flowers and 
other trifles into closed rooms ( regarded as proofs 
of the passage of matter through matter) ; and the 
handling of live coals and other burning substances 
with impunity. (J?) The mental phenomena, which 
occurred chiefly through the agency of the medium 
when in a condition resembling in many respects 
the trance of the hypnotised subject. When thus 
entranced the medium would write or speak words 
purporting to emanate from an intelligence other 
than his own. Proofs would thus be given of spirit 
identity : descriptions of the spirit world ; infor- 
mation on spiritual things ; the inner thoughts of 
the inquirer would be revealed, or the medium 
would give particulars of remote events or distant 
scenes ; and there were occasional excursions into 
the regions of prophecy, psychometry, and retro- 
cognition, or vision of the past. 

So rapidly did the belief in these marvels spread 
in the United States, that as early as 1854 a petition 
was presented to Congress, signed by some thirteen 
thousand persons, praying for the appointment of a 
scientific commission to investigate the phenomena 



SPIRITUALISM AS A POPULAR MOVEMENT. II 

" now engrossing so large a share of the public 
attention " and ''likely to produce important and last- 
ing results permanently affecting the physical con- 
dition, mental development, and moral character of 
a large number of the American people." The 
petition was ordered to be laid upon the table, and 
no action was taken. The movement soon spread 
to Europe. Early in the 'fifties Mrs. Hayden, 
Daniel Dunglas Home, and other mediums came to 
this country from America. Shortly after, centres 
of propagandism grew up here, native-born me- 
diums appeared on the scene, and journals de- 
voted to the subject came into existence. Some 
twenty-five years later, in 1887, there were about 
one hundred newspapers dealing with the philosophy 
and phenomena of Spiritualism ; of these about 
thirty were published in English (the majority of 
them circulating in the United States), and nearly 
forty in Spanish. 

Shortly before the time that Spiritualism as thus 
described was spreading over the civilised world, 
two or three English medical men — Braid in Man- 
chester, Esdaile in Calcutta, Elliotson and others 
in London — had been investigating the phenom- 
ena of hypnotism, or, as it was then more commonly 
styled, mesmerism. The important discovery, how- 
ever, of chloroform as an anaesthetic in 1847, an< ^ 
its rapidly increasing usefulness, drew away the 
attention of the medical world from the remarkable 
results achieved, by Esdaile especially, in the per- 
formance of surgical operations under "mesmeric" 



12 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

anaesthesia ; whilst the extravagances of the more 
ignorant practitioners of the art brought the whole 
subject into disrepute ; until some fifteen or twenty 
years later the work of Liebeault and Bernheim at 
Nancy, of Charcot at the Salpetriere, and sporadic 
inquiries like those of Heidenhain at Breslau, again 
called the attention of the scientific world to the 
matter. 

The Spiritualists for their part gladly adopted as 
their own a subject which was thus contemptuously 
rejected by medical men. They found, not unrea- 
sonably, in the phenomena of the hypnotic trance 
much to support and illustrate their own views of 
the spontaneous mediumistic trance ; and, less rea- 
sonably, in the process of hypnotic healing proof 
of spirit intervention. Again, the numerous stories 
of the Double, or Doppelganger ; of apparitions at 
the time of death, and of strange things seen and 
heard in "haunted houses," which had for many 
centuries received an intermittent and Nicodemus- 
like belief not amongst the unlearned alone, were 
all pressed into the service of the new faith. The 
Spiritualist even found support and corroboration 
of his belief in the records of mediaeval witchcraft 
and the traditions of ancient magic. 

Meanwhile the alleged physical phenomena of 
Spiritualism naturally attracted from time to time 
the notice of men of science. Mr. Alfred Russel 
Wallace, Mr. Cromwell Varley, Dr. Huggins> and 
other competent persons published accounts of re- 
markable manifestations witnessed by themselves. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A -POPULAR MOVEMENT. 1 3 

A Committee, which included many well-known 
doctors and barristers, was appointed by the Lon- 
don Dialectical Society in 1869, for the purpose of 
investigating the subject. The Committee reported 
in 1870 to the effect that, in addition to taking a 
great deal of oral and written evidence on the sub- 
ject, they had formed themselves into sub-com- 
mittees for the purpose of practical investigation, 
and that a large majority of the members had them- 
selves witnessed " several phases of the phenomena 
without the aid or presence of any professional 
medium." The Committee concluded that, "taking 
into consideration the high character and great in- 
telligence of many of the witnesses to the more 
extraordinary facts, the extent to which their testi- 
mony is supported by the reports of the sub-com- 
mittees, and the absence of any proof of imposture 
or delusion as regards a large portion of the phe- 
nomena ; and further, having regard to the excep- 
tional character of the phenomena, the large num- 
ber of persons in every grade of society and over 
the whole civilised world who are more or less in- 
fluenced by a belief in their supernatural origin, 
and to the fact that no philosophical explanation 
of them has yet been arrived at, they deem it 
incumbent upon them to state their conviction that 
the subject is worthy of more serious attention and 
careful investigation than it has hitherto received." * 
Mr. Crookes during the years 1870-74 conducted 
various investigations with Miss Cook, D. D. Home, 

1 Report en Spiritualism, London, 1871, Longmans, pp. 5, 6. 



14 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

and others, some of the results of which were pub- 
lished at the time in the Quarterly Journal of 
Science and elsewhere, and subsequently in a 
collected form under the title Researches in 
Spiritualism. x Mr. Crookes testifies to having 
witnessed, amongst other phenomena, the occur- 
rence of inexplicable sounds ; the alteration of the 
weight of bodies ; the movement of chairs, tables 
and other heavy objects, and the playing of musical 
instruments without contact or connection of 
any kind ; the levitation of human beings ; the 
appearance of strange luminous substances ; the 
appearance of hands apparently not attached to any 
body ; writing not produced by human agency ; 
the appearance of a materialised spirit-form, of 
which he succeeded in obtaining photographs. 

Professor W. F. Barrett, at the meeting of the 
British Association, at Glasgow, in 1876, read a 
paper on " Some Phenomena Associated with Ab- 
normal Conditions of Mind." In this paper he de- 
scribed, amongst other phenomena which he had 
himself witnessed, the occurrence in broad day- 
light of raps and other sounds exhibiting intelli- 
gence, in the presence of a young child, and under 
circumstances which seemed to put trickery out of 
the question. The paper provoked a good deal of 
discussion at the time, and the popular interest in 
it was heightened by the fact that a few days later 
there appeared in the Times a letter signed by 
Professor Ray Lankester and Dr. H. B. Donkin, 

London, J. Burns, 1875. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A POPULAR MOVEMENT. 1 5 

giving an account of two visits which they had paid 
to the medium Slade, whose performances had 
been referred to at the British Association meeting. 
They claimed to have detected Slade in writing on 
the slate, at a time when he supposed himself se- 
cure from observation, a message which purported 
to come from the spirit world. 

Again, in 1877-78, J. C. F. Zollner, Professor of 
Astronomy at Leipsic, held several sittings with 
this same medium, Slade, for the purpose of inves- 
tigating the phenomena. At some of these sittings, 
Zollner was assisted by his colleagues of the same 
university, Professors Scheibner and Fechner, and 
by the veteran Professor Wilhelm P. Weber. 
Amongst the chief phenomena which Professor 
Zollner claims to have witnessed, were the follow- 
ing : Writing was produced on slates without the 
agency of anyone present. Coins, unknown to any- 
one present and enclosed in a securely fastened 
box, were correctly described ; the same coins 
were subsequently extracted from the box and bits 
of slate-pencil substituted, the fastenings of the box 
remaining intact. Knots were tied in an endless 
cord, i. e. knots, such as would in normal circum- 
stances have required the end of the cord to be 
passed through the loop of the knot, were tied 
when the free ends were sealed together and under 
observation throughout the experiment. A small 
table disappeared and as suddenly re-appeared in 
broad daylight. Abnormal lights and abnormal 
shadows were observed. In these phenomena, or 



\6 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

some of them, Zollner found experimental confirm- 
ation of his hypothesis of a fourth dimension of 
space, — a dimension which should stand to the 
known dimensions of cubic space, height, length, 
and breadth, in the same relation which height now 
bears to the two dimensions of plane space. Given 
the fourth dimension, the existence of which is 
mathematically foreshadowed, Zollner pointed out 
that, to a man or a spirit endowed with the capacity 
of dealing with it, the abstraction of objects from a 
closed box, the knotting of an endless cord, or the 
removal into invisibility of a solid object would be 
tasks of no special difficulty. 1 

Of investigators without special training, but 
possessed of education, literary faculty, and general 
ability, two deserve special mention, — Mr. Stainton 
Moses and Serjeant Cox. Writing under the 
pseudonym of M. A. Oxon, Mr. Moses, himself a 
medium of very remarkable powers, has published 
accounts of numerous manifestations occurring in 
his presence, attested sometimes by himself, more 
frequently, when he himself was entranced and un- 
conscious, by a circle of intimate friends. These 
phenomena ranged from the occurrence of raps, 
musical sounds, and curious lights, to the movement 
of objects of furniture and " levitation " of the 
medium himself, the "materialisation" of liquid scent 
and of jewels, and the introduction of solid objects 

1 See Transcendental Physics, an abridged translation by C. C. Massey, 
London, 1880. 

The idea of space of various dimensions has been well worked out in an 
amusing little book called Flat land, published by Seeley & Co. in 1884. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A POPULAR MOVEMENT. I J 

into a closed room. On the mental side they in- 
cluded much inspirational ( automatic ) writing, 
some evidence of thought-transference and clair- 
voyance, and communications which, purporting to 
come from deceased persons, furnished many and 
striking proofs of the genuineness of their claims. 1 

In 1875 there was founded in London, under the 
presidency of the late Serjeant Cox, the Psycho- 
logical Society, " for the promotion of Psychological 
Science in all its branches. Its object the investi- 
gation of all the forces, organic and intelligent, that 
move and direct the material mechanism of man," 
As a matter of fact, the main subjects of the So- 
ciety's investigations at its periodical meetings were 
the physical phenomena of Spiritualism, ghosts, 
clairvoyance, and kindred subjects. Serjeant Cox 
himself was a witness to many of the marvels pro- 
duced by D. D. Home, and other members of the 
Society added their quota of wonders. But the 
chief interest of Serjeant Cox's work lay in his at- 
tempt to give articulate expression to the current 
metaphysics of the Spiritualists, and at the same 
time to explain the phenomena, without having re- 
course to disembodied spirits, by means of a force 
latent in the human organism. 

But while scientific men were content, for the 
most part, with recording the facts which they had 

1 See his articles in Human Nature for 1874, pp. 47, 161, etc.; also Spirit 
Identity, Psychography, and other works published in London from 1874 on- 
wards ; and the posthumous papers and diaries edited by Mr. Myers and 
published in the Proc. of the S. P. R. volumes ix. and xi. 

See also below, Chapter III., and Appendix to Chapter IV. 



1 8 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC A I RESEARCH. 

observed, or believed themselves to have observed, 
and waiting for the explanation, and Serjeant Cox 
and his adherents attributed the phenomena to 
psychic force radiating from the finger ends, or to 
the enlarged sensory powers of the psychic body, 
the mass of Spiritualists failed to find satisfaction 
in either attitude. As the peasant referred the 
movement of the steam-engine to the only motive 
force with which he was acquainted, and supposed 
that there were horses inside, so the Spiritualists, 
recognising, as they thought, in the phenomena the 
manifestations of will and intelligence not appar- 
ently those of any person visibly present, invoked 
the agency of the spirits of the dead. We can 
hardly call this belief an hypothesis or an explana- 
tion ; it seems indeed at its outset to have been 
little more than the instinctive utterance of prim- 
aeval animism. Later, when this explanation had 
become stereotyped, and had affected the attitude 
even of honest "mediums," causing them to claim 
for their most trivial automatic utterances an ex- 
ternal inspiration, it became difficult even for intel- 
ligent students to free themselves from the prevail- 
ing belief — a belief so widely attested by the 
phenomena themselves. Hence it comes that, 
notwithstanding the sporadic labours of men of 
science or common-sense, and the existence here 
and there of Psychological and Spiritualistic Evi- 
dence Societies, and the multiplication of Research 
Committees, and test seances, the general charac- 
ter of the movement was essentially non-scientific. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A POPULAR MOVEMENT. 1 9 

It was almost from the commencement a religious 
movement, expressing itself in America in Camp 
meetings, and in this country in Sunday services, 
trance addresses, and inspirational teaching. The 
hypothesis of spirit agency saved its devotees from 
a good deal of hard thinking. It was so easy to 
explain the hallucinations of delirium as spiritual 
entities ; the marvels of automatic writing or speak- 
ing as due to external inspiration ; the ordinary 
platform performance of thought-reading by means 
of a code, and indeed conjuring tricks in general, 
as proofs of abnormal psychic powers ; to discern 
spirit intervention even in the legerdemain of a 
renegade medium who took to " exposing" Spiritu- 
alism ; to explain the results of mesmeric healing 
as due to spirit helpers. Serjeant Cox adduced 
the hallucinatory feeling of a missing limb in proof 
of a spiritual body ; and a writer in the Spirit- 
ualist^ " not yet convinced of the spiritualistic 
theory," could even pronounce the after-images 
produced by gazing at a straw hat to be " inde- 
pendent of any known human agency." From all 
which it may be gathered that the conscientious 
Spiritualist when on marvels bent did not display a 
frugal mind ! 

The attitude of Spiritualists in general, then, was 
that of persons who had been more or less thrown 
off their balance by sudden exposure to experiences 
of a novel and surprising kind. Being for the most 
part ignorant of even the rudiments of natural 

1 Sept. 20, 1878. 



20 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

science, they had accepted almost without question 
the only explanation which appeared on a super- 
ficial examination adequate to explain the facts ; 
and had then exalted this explanation to the dignity 
of a religious tenet. Such a mental attitude was 
likely to be more conducive to beatific contempla- 
tion than to laborious analysis. The activities of 
the convert naturally took the form of missionary 
enterprise rather than of scientific investigation ; 
and the seance room became not a laboratory but 
a propagandist institution. From such an attitude 
little sympathy was to be expected for disinterested 
scepticism. For most Spiritualists the time for 
inquiry into the foundations of their belief, if it 
had ever been, had long since gone by. And 
whilst there were at all times a few men of edu- 
cation and intelligence who never shut their eyes 
to new facts or new interpretations of old ones, 
these men in no sense directed the movement. 
Spiritualism was a democratic birth of the land of 
democracy, and Spiritualists in general had made 
up their minds that these things — the movements 
of tables, the apparitions of the seance room, the 
inspirational addresses poured forth weekly in a 
hundred lecture halls — were the work of spirits. 
Nor was it only the satisfaction of the religious in- 
stinct and the inertia of faith grown habitual which 
benumbed the spirit of inquiry. Vanity was with 
most a powerful auxiliary. To persons who had 
built themselves a new faith and had posed as 
prophets, perhaps also as martyrs, in the domestic 



SPIRT T UA LISM AS A POP ULA R MO VEMEN T. 2 I 

circle and beyond it, on the strength of signs and 
marvels specially vouchsafed to them, it would have 
been a painful, often an unendurable shock, to have 
their signs and wonders explained as the result of 
clumsy fraud. Hence those who detected trickery of 
any kind met with scant sympathy. It was obscurely 
felt that they were malicious or ignorant persons 
who had gone out of their way to assail the new 
Revelation, and to make innocent people uncom- 
fortable and even, perhaps, ridiculous. 

Even when those who exposed the fraud were 
themselves believers, their reception was scarcely 
more favourable. Thus, in September, 1878, a 
group of Dutch Spiritualists detected the mediums, 
Williams and Rita, in flagrant trickery at Amster- 
dam. The exposure was complete. At a dark 
seance, a figure purporting to be a materialised 
spirit-form named " Charlie" showed his face by 
the light of a spirit lamp. One of the circle, whose 
suspicions had been aroused at a previous sitting, 
grasped " Charlie" and found himself holding Rita 
by the coat collar. After a sharp struggle a light 
was obtained, the two mediums were baffled in an 
attempt to escape from the house, and their persons 
were searched. Upon Rita were found a false 
beard, several large handkerchiefs, and a small cir- 
cular bottle of phosphorised oil, — the raw material 
of " Charlie" and his spirit lamp. On Williams 
were found also a beard, much used, several yards 
of dirty muslin, handkerchiefs, a bottle of phos- 
phorised oil, and a bottle of scent, — objects familiar 



22 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

in happier circumstances to the eye of faith as the 
bearded mariner "John King," with turban, lamp, 
and spirit perfume. In Williams's handbag were 
found a small tube filled with minute pieces of slate- 
pencil, and a piece of notched whalebone, — the in- 
struments employed for writing on closed slates. 

A full account of the exposure was published in 
the Spiritualist newspaper of Sept. 20, 1878. 
In a cautious article the Editor pointed out that 
"the spirits who produced physical manifestations 
are sometimes far from being saints, and in some 
cases are not averse to aiding and abetting their 
medium in imposture. Indeed when genuine 
mediums swindle the general public by turning 
'exposers,' and showing real manifestations as im- 
postures, the spirits still help them." He goes on 
to remind his readers that the medium is liable to fall 
into trances at all times, and suggests that spirits 
occasionally bring muslin themselves to the seance 
room. Later 1 he surmises that the mediums were 
probably " under some strong control," and were 
not responsible for their actions, on the night of the 
exposure. A Spiritualist of much experience, writ- 
ing on the fiasco, 2 suggests as an alternative to the 
supposition of trickery on the part of the mediums, 
either that the materialised spirits had brought in 
the muslin and other articles to clothe their naked- 
ness withal, or that some member of the circle had 
secretly introduced them, in order to injure the 
mediums. He adds that spirits habitually bring 

1 Sept. 27th. 2 Spiritualist, ist Nov., 1878. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A POPULAR MOVEMENT. 23 

material garments to clothe themselves in, and 
usually take them away again ; but that on this 
occasion "the spirit had to vanish so quickly that 
it had no time to dematerialise the muslin." The 
same writer adds that he had just had a most suc- 
cessful seance with Williams under "test" condi- 
tions. The value of this evidence may be inferred 
from the fact that the circle of five persons who 
"testca" Williams included two professional med- 
iums, Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Fletcher. Another 
Spiritualist writes that a materialised spirit on one 
occasion informed him, in answer to his question, 
that the clothes that she — the spirit — was then 
wearing came from the medium's wardrobe. And 
yet another suggests that the best way to ascertain 
the truth about the recent fiasco would be to con- 
sult — "John King!" So, when in January, 1880, 
Mrs. Corner 1 was seized in similar circumstances 
when personating a spirit by Sir G. Sitwell and 
Mr. Carl von Buch, the Editor of the Spiritualist 
points out that "grasping one of the forms and 
finding it to be the medium proves nothing." 2 Mr. 
Stainton Moses expressed the opinion that "such 
methods of inquiry would often land a man in a 
fallacy, and that there were powers and phenomena 
which were not amenable to such rude and ready 
methods of investigation" 3 ; while the Editor of 
Spiritual Notes has " no difficulty in arriving at 
the conclusion that on the occasion of the recent 

1 Miss Cook. 2 Jan. 16, 1880. 

3 Spiritual Notes, Feb. (a monthly paper), 1880. 



24 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

seizure Mrs. Corner was completely guiltless of de- 
ception." 1 Moreover, Mrs. Corner's character as a 
genuine medium was vindicated on this occasion 
with unexampled rapidity, by means of a success- 
ful seance held, on the evening of the exposure, at 
the house and in the presence of another professional 
medium, the same Mrs. Fletcher. 

In the year 1882 there appeared in the Spirit- 
ualist journal Light 2 an account, by a gentleman 
of some scientific pretensions, of a seance held under 
"test" conditions, with Miss Wood of Newcastle 
as medium ; in which two remarkable materialised 
spirit-forms were described as having walked about 
the room, one of which — the child form of a little 
Indian girl called Pocha — touched and even kissed 
some of the sitters. Now Light was the recog- 
nised organ of the chief Spiritualist organisation, 
" The British National Association of Spiritualists," 
and numbered at this time among its contributors 
and supporters the great majority of such educated 
Spiritualists as there were in this country, including 
many names well known in the larger world of art, 
science, and politics. It so happened that I had 
myself attended a seance with the same medium, 
held under the same "test" conditions, which, briefly, 
were as follows : Miss Wood was placed in a cup- 
board, the door of which had been removed and 
the entry secured by passing a continuous cord 
through eye-headed screws, placed at short inter- 
vals along the sides, top, and bottom of the door- 

'Feb., 1880. 2 July 29th. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A POPULAR MOVEMENT. 2$ 

way, — the result being a kind of irregular network, 
with meshes whose sides varied from five to ten 
inches in measurement. This arrangement was de- 
signed to prevent Miss Wood from leaving the 
cupboard or " cabinet." A thick curtain was drawn 
over the doorway, but at an angle, so as to leave a 
considerable space between the network and curtain. 
The lights were lowered, and after a short interval 
occupied by singing, two figures — a woman and 
" Pocha," the aforesaid little Indian girl — emerged 
separately from the curtain and moved about in the 
semi-darkness. The figures did not in my presence 
appear together, nor did either of them touch the 
sitters. After the sitting was concluded I examined 
the network, and found by actual trial that it was 
quite easy to creep in and out without injuring the 
meshes. I accordingly wrote to Light, 1 com- 
municating my discovery, and pointing out that, 
when once the medium had come through the net- 
work, it would have been quite easy for her, with 
the aid of a little drapery, to produce all the phe- 
nomena which had been observed. The taller of 
the two figures, on this hypothesis, would be Miss 
Wood standing upright, the shorter, Miss Wood on 
her knees. The singing would effectually drown 
any noise made by the medium in creeping through 
the network : the presence and position of the cur- 
tain would hide her movements during the opera- 
tion : whilst the more than semi-darkness would 
render detection difficult. 

1 Aug. 19, 1882. 



26 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

The letter was intended, not as a demonstration 
that fraud had been committed, but as a protest 
against the assumption that, under the given con- 
ditions, fraud was impossible. It met with a some- 
what surprising reception. The next three num- 
bers of the paper contained nine lengthy letters — 
selected, as the Editor explained, out of a much larger 
number, some of them too personal for publication 
— from indignant Spiritualists. Not one of the 
writers recognised that temperate criticism of the 
kind employed was legitimate and even helpful. 
Some, indeed, disputed the possibility of the " tests " 
being evaded in the manner I described. But the 
majority thought it a sufficient answer to describe 
similar phenomena obtained, also " under test con- 
ditions," at other times and in other circumstances. 
One writer even maintained that to take any pre- 
caution against fraud was superfluous and unphilo- 
sophical. By all my action was condemned. The 
correspondence was cut short in a dramatic fashion. 
The last of the letters appeared in Light for Sept. 
9th. The issue of the following week contained a 
letter from a Spiritualist narrating that, at a seance 
held at his house a few days previously, Miss Wood 
had been detected in flagrant imposture. A mem- 
ber of the circle had ventured to do what I had not 
done. He had seized the child form of " Pocha," 
and found himself holding Miss Wood, on her knees, 
partially undressed, and covered with muslin, which 
she unsuccessfully endeavoured to conceal about 
her person. The next number of Light was. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A POPULAR MOVEMENT. 2 J 

filled with letters, not in reprobation, but in defence 
of Miss Wood. A main feature of the defence, 
as before, was the description of marvellous phe- 
nomena at previous seances. Various alternative 
explanations of the exposure, as in the case of 
Williams and Rita, were suggested : that the 
sitters had made a mistake ; that the gentleman 
who seized the medium had brought in the muslin 
himself ; that Miss Wood was possessed by an evil 
spirit on the occasion in question ; and finally, that, 
the materialised form being constructed out of the 
physical body of the medium, when the form is 
seized and can no longer return to the medium, 
the spirits, in order to secure the medium from 
serious injury, are obliged to bring the body to the 
form. They coalesce, and the inquirer who began 
by seizing a spirit finds that his grasp has closed 
upon a frame of flesh and blood. This last theory, 
it should be explained, claimed no mortal source ; 
it was propounded on the authority of a spirit, who 
had communicated it to the correspondent. — Miss 
Wood continued to give " test " seances. 

In the early part of the year 1884, there was 
published in Light, and subsequently republished 
in the form of a pamphlet, under the title Spiritu- 
alism at Home, an account of certain singular mani- 
festations in the house of a capable man of business 
and prominent Spiritualist. According to the 
writer, the manifestations had been going on for 
some months, his servant being the medium. Fires 
were lit, and the breakfast table laid, by unseen agen- 



28 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

cies ; spirit-writings were found on walls and ceil- 
ings, in locked receptacles, or produced on marked 
paper at seances. The writings so produced were 
in many languages, — English, German, old French, 
Latin, Greek. The handwriting was in many cases 
so small as to defy human imitation. Last and 
most stupendous marvel of all, Saadi, a poet of 
ancient Persia, appeared in this domestic circle, and 
was even seen by two of its members, who described 
him as having "black hair, with a dark flowing 
beard, penetrating eyes and a lovely face." Saadi 
was good enough to communicate, by means of 
direct writing, several long pieces of poetry in 
English, translations of his own poems. He also 
gave a brief account of his life, with dates and 
other particulars. 

The opportunity was given to me to investigate 
such of these marvellous occurrences as lent them- 
selves to investigation. I could not, indeed, be a 
witness to the laying of the breakfast, the lighting 
of fires, or the performance of other humble domes- 
tic offices by the invisible agencies, since the action 
of the human eye was found to be inimical to such 
phenomena, which took place, even in the presence 
of the master of the house, only when his back 
happened to be turned. But the writings on the 
ceiling and the walls I did see, and I noted a re- 
markable peculiarity about them. When the writ- 
ing occurred on the woodwork of the doorway or 
on other spots accessible to a person of ordinary 
stature mounted on a chair, the letters were regu- 



SPIRITUALISM ASA POPULAR MOVEMENT. 29 

larly formed and of normal size. When the writ- 
ing occurred on a high ceiling, the writing was 
much larger, and the letters straggling and ir- 
regular, as might be the case if the writing had 
chanced to have been formed by a maid-servant 
standing in uncertain poise on a step-ladder, or 
armed with pencil attached to a broomstick. I 
was also shown the exact spot where the spirit-writ- 
ings were wont to appear in a locked secretaire, 
and found it not difficult to push a piece of paper 
through the chink in the flap and cause it to fall 
on the same spot. Indeed the master of the house 
unwittingly gave important testimony as to the 
value of this particular " test." Aware of the diffi- 
culty of getting the exact test sought, he neverthe- 
less ventured to ask the spirits to write on a manu- 
script which he locked up in the secretaire aforesaid. 
The "test " given was some writing on another piece 
of paper subsequently introduced into the secretaire, 
and found in the position above described. " I sel- 
dom get exactly what I seek," he writes in reference 
to this incident, "but something equally satisfac- 
tory in the way of proof." * The " direct spirit-writ- 
ing" of superhuman fineness was of such a nature 
that any educated person with a little time and 
patience could produce with ease writing smaller 
and not less legible. The Latin and Greek had 
many mistakes ; even some of the letters in the 
Greek being incorrectly formed, and accents and 
breathings omitted. 

1 Light, 1884, p. 244. 



30 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

But the most startling phenomenon of all — the 
poetry of Saadi — remained to be accounted for. 
Whilst puzzling over the problem, a friend placed 
in my hands Part VI. of Chambers s Repository of 
Instructive and Amusing Tracts, a once popular and 
widely circulated series. From an article on " Per- 
sian Poetry in the Past " were derived all the trans- 
lations of Persian poetry quoted by the spirit Saadi, 
and all the particulars of his life and death which 
he had vouchsafed to give to this nineteenth-century 
domestic circle. It seemed hardly worth while to 
revisit earth after so many centuries only to furnish 
information which was accessible to any English 
schoolboy. But there were some interesting varia- 
tions in the spirit poetry, indicating an imperfect 
understanding of his subject on the part of their 
author. Moreover, Saadi, in the seclusion of this 
quiet suburban household, had ventured to claim 
as his own a poem written by somebody else. But 
even this feat was surpassed by another Persian 
spirit, called Wamik, who gave himself out as 
Saadi's friend, and communicated as his own no 
less than eighteen lines of poetry, signed Wamik 
Zerdusht, adding the interesting information, 
" Wamik was burnt to death at Abyssinia ; he lived 
in this life before 636." Here was indeed news 
from the spirit world, for, according to Sir W. 
Jones, 1 Wamik was no friend of Saadi, had written 
no poetry, and had no claim to the name Zer- 
dusht, having in fact never lived at all. For " Wa- 

1 Quoted in the tract referred to. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A POPULAR MOVEMENT. 3 1 

mik " was the imaginary hero of the poem to which 
the spirit had subscribed his name. 

All this and much more I communicated in a 
series of letters to Light} The editor of that peri- 
odical expressed his opinion that my ''difficulties" 
(t. e., in accepting these spiritual revelations) " arose 
wholly and solely from the incomplete and hasty 
investigation " which I had accorded to the phe- 
nomena. But the rest of the poems of Saadi and 
his friend Wamik, and all the things that they did, 
are printed in a handsome octavo volume of some 
three hundred pages, illustrated with facsimiles of 
the spirit-writings on doors and ceilings, entitled 
Spirit Workers in the Home Circle? 

Such then was the temper in which the physical 
miracles were accepted. And the same childlike 
faith marked the attitude of Spiritualists in general 
to the mental phenomena of trance-speaking and 
the like. But between these is a broad distinction 
to be drawn. Whilst there is little room to doubt 
that the great majority — at any rate — of the so- 
called physical manifestations were due to delib- 
erate and preconcerted fraud, such phenomena as 
trance-speaking, automatic writing, and the visions 
seen at seances, were probably in many cases the 
genuine outcome of states more or less abnormal. 
A party of schoolboys, thrilled by the marvels de- 
scribed in the pages of The Medium and Daybreak, 
held in the autumn of 1873 a seance, — a dark 

1 January, February, and March, 1885. 

2 London, Fisher Unwin, 1887. 



32 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH, 

seance, since darkness was enjoined as one of the 
conditions favourable for spirit communion, — at 
which one of their number passed into a trance, 
undoubtedly genuine, and wrote two or three stan- 
zas of indifferent poetry, purporting to proceed 
from Thomas Campbell. The suspicions of dia- 
bolical intervention, aroused in the first instance by 
the awful facility with which the entranced subject 
wrote Spiegelschrift 1 — as who should say the Lord's 
Prayer backwards — were confirmed by the later 
discovery that the spirit of the poet had made a 
mistake of some twenty years in the date of his 
death. None of the party could be persuaded to 
sit again. But the attitude of unquestioning ac- 
ceptance, which was perhaps natural and pardon- 
able in a party of schoolboys, remained the attitude 
of the majority of Spiritualists throughout their 
lives. The self-induced trance, into which the 
"clairvoyant" medium habitually fell during the 
seance, was always for them a spiritual state ; his 
somnambulic babblings in this condition, the utter- 
ance of spirits, — the old Indian chief, Shaggy Bear, 
the great medicine-man, Owassoo, and all their 
tribe ; his automatic writings were dictated by 
spirit guides. Some recited poetry when in this 
condition ; there is still extant the " Farewell to 
Earth " of Edgar Allan Poe, and many other 
verses of the kind, which the world will doubtless 
not unwillingly let die. But perhaps the com- 
monest form of automatic utterance was the in- 

1 Looking-glass writing. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A POPULAR MOVEMENT. 33 

spirational address or sermon. In many cases, no 
doubt, these addresses were actually composed and 
delivered in a state of somnambulism, or at least 
without the conscious co-operation of the speaker. 
But there is rarely anything in the matter of the 
discourse which should lead us to look for inspi- 
ration beyond the speaker's own mind. The 
gifted Mrs. Cora L. V. Tappan-Richmond was an 
adept in this kind, and held crowded audiences of 
Spiritualists spell-bound Sunday after Sunday by 
her somewhat flatulent eloquence. To this class 
belong also some of the writings of Mr. Stainton 
Moses, produced under the direction of " Impera- 
tor " and a syndicate of spirit guides. 

There were many other books of the kind, ap- 
pealing for the most part to a less cultured audi- 
ence than that reached by " Imperator," and 
certainly making larger claims on the reader's 
credulity. Such, for example, is JLafed, Prince 
of Persia, his experiences in Earth Life and Spirit 
Life, being spirit communications received through 
Mr. David Duguid, the Glasgow trance-painting 
medium : with an appendix containing communica- 
tions from the spirit artists Ruysdael and Steen} 
The book is illustrated by facsimiles of various 
drawings and writings, "the direct work of the 
spirits." There are pictures of Hafed, Prince of 
Persia, himself, of Christian martyrs and rampant 
lions, of an ancient Egyptian seance with a fully 
materialised spirit-form ; together with much sur- 

1 London, J. Burns, 1876. 



34 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

prising information about the spirit world, the 
nature of man, and the solar system. 

Frequently no doubt the machinery of the trance 
was deliberately assumed, and the inspirational 
speaker or writer borrowed his matter when he had 
not the wit to invent it. There used at one time 
to appear on various Sunday platforms a trance- 
orator named Lambelle. In December, 1878, Mr. 
Lambelle delivered in the Ladbroke Hall two 
discourses on the nature of the spirit world and 
cognate subjects. Mr. St. George Stock, who 
attended the lecture, showed by the damning evi- 
dence of parallel passages, 1 that both discourses 
were lifted wholesale, — not merely the substance, 
but the actual words, — from a volume of sermons 
by a Swedenborgian minister. Mr. Lambelle in 
his defence could do no better than impute bad 
faith to his critic. A more audacious apology was 
offered by another Spiritualist for the occurrence 
of parallel passages in an inspired discourse and a 
printed book, both describing the appearance of a 
celestial city. The literal and verbal similarity of 
the two descriptions was held to prove nothing more 
than the fidelity of two independent witnesses in 
describing the same spiritual scene. It is probable 
that such thefts were not infrequent, and were prac- 
tised with greater impunity because Spiritualists as 
a body were not addicted to outside literature. 

At this point we may profitably pause in order 
to glance at the philosophic and religious concep- 

1 Spiritualist, 27 Dec, 1878 and 10 Jan., 1879. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A POPULAR MOVEMENT. 35 

tions which underlay the Spiritualist movement. 
Of its metaphysics, probably the most complete 
account is to be found in The Mechanism of Man, 
art Answer to the Question " What am If" 1 two 
volumes in which Serjeant Cox dealt with the phe- 
nomena of Spiritualism, and founded upon them a 
system of what he termed Psychology, but which 
would perhaps be more correctly described as 
Transcendental Physiology. The scientific and 
metaphysical speculations in the book are of little 
value, except as reflecting, with more accuracy than 
a book written by a stronger thinker might have 
done, the floating ideas then and apparently still 
held by Spiritualists on the nature of the soul and 
of the spiritual beings with whom they believed 
themselves to be in communication. Serjeant Cox 
himself, indeed, as already said, attributed the phe- 
nomena in which he believed, not to the agency of 
disincarnate spirits, but to the extra-corporeal 
action of the human soul. But in formulating his 
theories he avails himself of current spiritualistic 
metaphysics, and his book constitutes the most 
systematic expression of those metaphysics. Briefly 
his theory is, that the man consists of two parts — 
Body and Soul. The Soul, or Spirit, is like the 
body in shape, like it in parts and magnitude, and, 
like it, is also material. " Spirit " says Serjeant 
Cox, " is not and cannot be immaterial " ; and again, 
" if the Soul is a refined Body (and it must be that 

1 London, Longmans & Co. This book, published in 1876, was a new 
edition, greatly expanded, of an earlier work on the same lines. 



$6 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

or nothing)." But though material, the Soul is 
not grossly material ; " its substance is vastly more 
refined than the thinnest gas with which we are ac- 
quainted," finer, indeed, possibly than the sub- 
stance of a comet's tail. Moreover, it is superior 
to the body in many ways. In it inhere will and 
intelligence. It does not disintegrate with the 
death of the body. It is exempt from gravity, and 
has the power, in certain circumstances, of con- 
ferring a like exemption on bodies with which it 
associates itself. It can flow through visible, or, as 
Cox calls it, '"molecular" matter, as water through 
a sponge. (The analogy is characteristically super- 
ficial ; Cox's theory requires that the constituent 
parts of the Soul, or Psychic Body, should be rela- 
tively fixed, but it is of course in virtue of its mole- 
cules having no definite position in relation to 
each other that water can flow through a porous 
solid.) The Soul would further have enlarged 
powers of perception, still apparently dependent, 
however, on aerial or ethereal undulations. In 
proof of the theory Serjeant Cox appeals to spirit- 
ualistic phenomena at large : to the occurrence of 
apparitions (again characteristically slurring over 
the difficulty of the clothes), and to the sensations 
felt by a patient who has recently lost a limb, re- 
ferred by him to the missing member. 

Lest it should be thought that Serjeant Cox is 
not a sufficiently representative exponent of spirit- 
ualist beliefs, the testimony of Dr. Hare, the 
American Spiritualist, shall be added. He tells us 



SPIRITUALISM AS A POPULAR MOVEMENT. 37 

in his book on Spirit Manifestations? that he was 
informed, by the spirits, that spirits differed from 
one another in density, and that they have a fluid 
circulating through an arterial and venous system 
which is subject to a respiratory process. So 
material, according to his information, are the 
spirits and their surroundings that the spiritual 
spheres of Jupiter can be seen through a telescope, 
— being, indeed, what are known as the bands of 
that planet. So Mr. Cromwell Varley 2 speaks of 
thought as being " solid," and explains the clothes 
of apparitions on this hypothesis. And Mr. 
Hockley 3 expresses his belief that the things seen 
in a crystal are objective, being the ghosts or spirit- 
ual counterparts of real objects. 

Such, in brief, is the philosophy, originally, no 
doubt, borrowed, and marred in the borrowing, 
from Swedenborg, and through him from yet older 
mystics, which more or less explicitly underlies the 
belief of the Spiritualists. Its exponents are not, 
of course, at all times consistent. There come to 
most occasional misgivings that the phenomena of 
will and consciousness may not be wholly explained 
by postulating one or more ethereal bodies each 
inside the other, like the ivory balls of Chinese 
carving. But, in general, materialism in two 
worlds fairly represents the cosmical scheme of 
these latter-day mystics. 

1 New York, 1855, 

2 Dialectical Report, p. 172. 
3 I5., p. 187. 



38 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Trance-speaking and -writing have played an im- 
portant part in the history of Spiritualism as a 
religious movement. The inspired writings of Mr. 
Stainton Moses form the gospel of modern English 
Spiritualism. Indeed, Mr. Stainton Moses in his 
own person was the foremost champion in this 
country of the doctrine of Spiritualism properly so 
called ; the system of philosophy which ascribed the 
phenomena in general to the agency of spirits 
of dead men and women, and believed in the 
advent, under spirit guidance, of a world-wide 
religion. It is hardly necessary for our present 
purpose to enter upon any detailed account of these 
religious doctrines. The curious inquirers can con- 
sult Spirit Teachings, by Mr. Stainton Moses. 1 The 
book consists of detached essays and answers to 
questions propounded by Mr. Moses himself. Both 
essays and answers purport to be inspired by cer- 
tain spirit guides, who veiled their individuality 
under such titles as Imperator, Rector, Doctor, and 
so on, and to be written automatically through the 
medium's unconscious hand. 

An earlier book on the same lines is Dr. Hare's 
Spirit Manifestations and Doctrine of the Spirit- 
world respecting Heaven, Hell, Morality, and God> 
already referred to. Dr. Hare narrates that he had 
received many communications respecting these 
high subjects from his father, sister, and brother, 
but feeling a reluctance at publishing matter of 

1 A Posthumous edition published in 1894 by E. W. Allen, 4 Ave Maria 
Lane, E. C. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A POPULAR MOVEMENT. 39 

such importance, "solely on the authority of his 
relations," he summoned a Convocation of Worthies 
of the Spirit World, to meet at an appointed hour, 
M at the dwelling of the excellent medium em- 
ployed." To this Convocation, which fortunately 
included the spirit of George Washington, together 
with those of Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton, 
and Byron, he propounded a series of sixty-four 
questions, the answers to which were found amply 
to corroborate the information previously received 
from less distinguished sources. 

But Spiritualism has had almost as many pro- 
phets as followers. Andrew Jackson Davis, known 
as the Poughkeepsie Seer, has published some 
twenty or thirty volumes of a Harmonial Philo- 
sophy, which had and has its adherents chiefly in 
America. A some-time friend and fellow-worker 
with Davis, the poet and prophet, Thomas Lake 
Harris, has had an even wider influence. Separat- 
ing from Davis very early in his career, Harris 
founded a religion of his own, in which the Inner 
Breathing, Esoteric meaning of the Scriptures, 
Sortes Biblicae, Celestial consorts, and many other 
mysteries played a part. He founded a community 
in the States, and exercised a profound influence 
on many minds in this country, the late Laurence 
Oliphant and his wife being perhaps his best known 
disciples. 

The doctine of re-incarnation, originally no doubt 
borrowed from the East, was imported into their 
belief by many Spiritualists. At first this doctrine 



40 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

seems to have found its adherents chiefly in France, 
but it was not long before it corrupted the primi- 
tive simplicity of the Anglo-American creed. It 
received its most potent development in the teach- 
ings of that vigorous offshoot of the spiritualist 
movement, the Theosophical Society. This society 
was founded in New York in 1876, with Colonel 
Olcott as its figure-head, by the master-mind of the 
late Madame Blavatsky. Several noted Spiritual- 
ists were among its original members, and it soon 
gained numerous recruits from the same source, as 
well as from the outside. The Theosophists 
taught not only the doctrine of re-incarnation, but 
the existence and intervention of elementary or 
non-human spirits, to whose aimless freaks many 
of the familiar phenomena of spiritualism were to 
be referred. In his opening address Colonel Olcott 
holds out to the society the hope that " by simple 
chemical appliances " there may be shortly exhib- 
ited to them " the races of beings which, invisible 
to our eyes, people the elements." " What," con- 
tinues he, " will the Spiritualists say when through 
the column of saturated vapour flit the dreadful 
shapes of beings whom in their blindness they have 
in a thousand cases revered and babbled to as the 
returning shades of their relatives and friends." 1 
Re-incarnation and the " astral " or elemental spir- 
its formed, with other mysteries, parts of the gospel 
preached in London, in or about the year 1880, by 
the joint authors of The Perfect Way ; and there 

1 Human Nature, 1876, p. 166. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A POPULAR MOVEMENT. 4 1 

were Hermetic Societies, and Christo-Theosophical 
Societies, and many others. No opinion or de- 
lusion was too monstrous to find its adherents. I 
have been told on excellent authority tales of 
witchcraft in modern times such as the author of 
Sadducismus Triumphatus would have excused him- 
self from believing. A person of my acquaintance 
vaunted that he could demonstrate that the earth 
was flat, and that he had learnt the art of preserv- 
ing his body forever from senile decay. Natural 
death, resulting from ossification of the tissues, could 
be averted by giving the body little material out 
of which to form bone, and providing a sufficiency 
of acids to carry off any of the earthy salts which 
might find their way in. Hence a diet consisting 
exclusively of flesh meat and fruits was indicated 
as the means to preserve the body from death, 
save by accident or disease. I have met a lady 
who claimed to have already put on her immortal 
body — prepared, however, by a different process ; 
whilst her husband was willing to sell the secret of 
immortality for the ridiculous sum of ^ioo, or 
less, according to the measure of his client's faith 
or fortunes. 



CHAPTER III. 

ON THE PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 

THE preceding chapter will have made it clear 
that the testimony to Spiritualistic mani- 
festations may without malice be described as 
more copious than cogent. There were Spiritual- 
ists not a few who would be capable of testifying, 
if their prepossessions happened to point that way, 
that they had seen the cow jump over the moon ; 
and would refer for corroborative evidence to the 
archives of the nursery. But, as already indicated, 
in the voluminous literature of the subject there 
were to be found a few records deserving of at- 
tention, whether from the striking nature of the 
phenomena observed, from the circumstances under 
which the observations were made, or from the 
character and position of the witnesses. It is pro- 
posed in this chapter to present a brief summary of 
the best evidence of this type. In making the selec- 
tion I have been guided not merely by the published 
opinions of the best-known Spiritualists, but by the 
verdict of such external critics as Mrs. Henry Sidg- 
wick and Mr. F. W. H. Myers. By the opinion of 
those — whether within or without the movement — 

who are best qualified to judge, the selection of 

42 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 43 

evidence here given would, I feel confident, be 
accepted as representative. Other evidence, equal 
in importance to that furnished, for instance, by 
the experiments of MM. de Gasparin and Thury, 
there may be ; but assuredly there is none better, 
none in my judgment equal in value to that af- 
forded by Mr. Crookes's observations. 

Experiments of MM. Thury and de Gasparin. 

In the autumn of 1853 the Count Agenor de 
Gasparin carried on a series of experiments in 
which he claimed to have observed movements of 
tables and other heavy objects not due to ordinary 
physical agencies. His results were published in 
the following year, under the title Des Tables Tour- 
naittes, du Surnaturel en general et des Esprits. 
M. de Gasparin avowedly wrote not as a man of 
science but as a theologian. He had been con- 
cerned at the interpretation put on these alleged 
physical phenomena by Spiritualists in America 
and elsewhere, and he laboured to prove, in the 
interests of revealed religion, that the movements, 
though real, were not to be attributed to the 
agency of spirits of the dead, but rather to some 
force emanating from the human organism and 
under the control of the will. It seems likely that 
prepossessions of the kind which M. de Gasparin 
admits would not in themselves tend seriously to 
affect his judgment in the matter, since it would 
have served his purpose as well or better had he 
been able to trace all the movements observed to 



44 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

fraud. But the phenomena recorded were also 
attested by a friend, M. Thury, a professor at the 
Academy of Geneva, and a member of the " Societe 
de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle." 

It is from Professor Thury's pamphlet, 1 in which 
he gives an account of the phenomena observed by 
himself, as well as from the abridged edition of de 
Gasparin's work, published in London in 1889, that 
the following description is taken. M. de Gaspa- 
rin's circle consisted of from six to twelve persons, 
of whom Thury was frequently one. The remain- 
der included several servants and three children. 
The chief physical manifestations fall under two 
heads : (1) movements of objects with contact, 
which could not apparently have been effected by 
normal means, and (2) movements without contact. 

(1) Of the first class the experiment regarded as 
most crucial was made with a table constructed 
on the principle of a weighing machine. The ap- 
paratus was apparently designed by Thury, and is 
minutely described by him. It consisted of a 
round table, some thirty-three inches in diameter, 
supported on one end of a beam or lever whose cen- 
tre rested on a tripod stand, the weight of the table 
being counterbalanced by a scale with weights 
hanging on the other arm of the beam. A single 
leg projected from the under side of the table, and 
just touched the ground. This leg did not support 
the table ; it was apparently designed simply to pre- 
vent any movement of the table in a downward 

1 Des Tables Tournantes, Geneva, 1855. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 45 

direction. When equilibrium was established, it 
was clearly impossible for any pressure of the fingers 
on the upper surface of the table — which was pol- 
ished but not varnished — to effect a movement of 
the table in an upward direction. Nevertheless, 
when the weights in the scale were gradually 
diminished, so as to increase the weight of the 
table, upward movements of the latter were ob- 
served. In one case the movement indicated a 
force of 4.27 kilograms, which, divided amongst the 
six operators, gave, as M. Thury pointed out, an 
average upward pull of .71 (about \\ pounds) for 
each operator. 

(2) At a later stage movements without contact 
were observed. At first, as de Gasparin describes, 
these took the form of the continued rotation of a 
table which had begun to rotate with the operators' 
hands placed upon it. Recognising, however, that 
the mere continuation of a movement originally 
started by mechanical means was open to other ex- 
planations than that suggested by him, he tried for, 
and succeeded, as he believed, in obtaining move- 
ments initiated without contact. The hands of all 
present were linked together above the table, in 
order to form a closed circuit for the conduction of 
the " psychic fluid " ; and in order still further to 
guard against possible contact with the table, the 
upper surface was occasionally dusted over with 
flour by means of a vine sprinkler. M. Thury gives 
the following account of some experiments of this 
kind which he himself observed. 



46 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

" La table sur laquelle se faisaient les essais dont j'ai ete 
temoin, a 82 centimetres de diametre, et pese 14 kilogrammes. 
Une force tangentielle moyenne de 2 kil., pouvant s'elever a 3 
kil., suivant les inegalites du plancher, appliquee au bord du 
plateau, est necessaire pour donner au meuble un mouvement 
de rotation. Le nombre des personnes qui agissent sur cette 
table est en general de dix. 

" Pour nous assurer de l'absence de tout contact, nous pla- 
cions notre ceil a la hauteur du plateau, de maniere a voir 
le jour entre les doigts et la surface de la table : les doigts 
se maintenaient a un demi-pouce environ au-dessus du plateau. 
En general, deux personnes observaient a, la fois. Par ex- 
emple, M. Edmond Boissier observait les pieds de la table, 
tandis que je surveillais le plateau ; puis nous changions de 
role. Quelquefois deux personnes se placaient aux extremites 
d'un merae diametre, l'une vis-a-vis de l'autre, pour surveiller 
le plateau. Et, a bien des reprises, nous avons vu la table se 
mettre en mouvement, sans qu'il nous fut possible de sur- 
prendre le moindre attouchement des doigts. D'apres mes 
calculs (voyez la note deuxieme a. la fin de ce memoire), il 
faudrait au moins le frolement de 100 doigts ou la pression 
legere de 30, ou deux mains agissant volontairement et avec 
fraude, pour expliquer mecaniquement les mouvements que 
nous avons observes ; or pour nous une telle supposition n' est 
decidement pas admissible." l 

MM. de Gasparin and Thury claim, it will be 
seen, on the strength of elaborate calculations as to 
the amount of force which could be exerted by the 
pressure of one or two fingers, or even a hand, on 
the surface of the table, that the phenomena ob- 
served could not have been due to fraud. De 
Gasparin further points out that the table could 
not have been moved by pressure of the chest of 
any person present without almost certain detection, 

1 Loc. cit., pp. 15, 16. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 4 J 

and Thury, as has been shown, watched the foot 
of the table as well as its surface. But it seems 
clear that these precautions were insufficient 
against fraud. If neither the feet nor the hands 
of the sitters could be employed, the knees could 
apparently have been used without much risk, and 
Thury clearly could not watch both the upper 
and under surfaces simultaneously. On the whole, 
though the experiments were conducted with care, 
and with a laudable desire not to exaggerate the 
importance of the facts observed, the experimenters 
do not appear to have sufficiently realised the 
possibilities of fraud ; and their results add little 
to the evidence for action of a psychic, or, as 
Thury has preferred to name it, " ectenic " force. 

Experiments of Dr. Hare. 

In 1855 Dr. Robert Hare, Emeritus Professor 
of Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, 
communicated to the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science an account of some 
experiments conducted by himself with various 
mediums. 1 In some of these an apparatus was 
used on the same model as that employed later by 
Mr. Crookes (see below, p. 55). A board four 
feet long was supported on a rod as a fulcrum 
about a foot from one end, the other end being 
attached by a hook to a spring balance. A glass 
vessel filled with water was placed on the board 

1 See Experimental Investigations, etc., by Robert Hare, M.D. New 
York, 1855. 



48 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

near the fulcrum, between it and the hook of the 
balance ; a wire gauze cup, attached to an in- 
dependent support, and not touching the vase at 
any point, was then inserted into the water and the 
medium placed his hand inside the cup. In this 
position the only possible force which he could 
exert by normal means, assuming that he did not 
touch any part of the apparatus, was that due to 
the slight displacement of water by his submerged 
fingers — a few ounces at most. Nevertheless the 
balance showed an appreciable downward pull, 
amounting on one occasion to as much as 18 lbs. 
Dr. Hare mentions that on one occasion Mr. 
Kennedy, and on another Professor Henry were 
present at the experiment ; but he does not say 
whether any other person was in the room, nor 
does he state whether any precaution was taken to 
exclude fraud. But whatever weight we should 
feel ourselves justified, in the absence of fuller 
details, in attaching to these experiments if they 
stood alone, is considerably discounted by his 
account of some other experiments conducted at 
about the same time with another apparatus of his 
own invention. A dial, with the letters of the 
alphabet round its circumference, was attached to a 
table in such a way that any lateral movement of 
the table would cause the dial to rotate, and bring 
the different letters under the pointer. Through 
this device words and coherent messages were 
spelt out, the medium sitting at the table behind 
the dial in such a position that she could not see 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 49 

its face. Dr. Hare took elaborate precautions to 
prevent the medium from effecting the movements 
of the dial by pressure of her hand upon the table. 
But from the description and the illustration given 
in his book, it would have been apparently quite 
easy for her to move the table with her knees or 
other parts of the body, and such movements 
would probably have escaped detection, unless 
special and continuous observation were directed 
to defeat the fraud. But Dr. Hare does not seem 
to have realised the possibility of fraud of this 
kind ; and the character of the book generally, con- 
sisting as it does largely of dissertations on theology 
and cosmology, founded on spirit revelations, is 
not such as to inspire confidence in his judgment. 
It seems clear, therefore, that these experiments 
add little to the evidence for a new force. 

Experiments of the Dialectical Society. 

In 1 87 1, as already mentioned, the Committee 
of the London Dialectical Society published their 
report on Spiritualism. It was claimed that two 
of the Sub-committees appointed for experimental 
investigation had obtained direct evidence of the 
occurrence of super-normal manifestations. Sub- 
committee No. 1 reported that they had fre- 
quently observed movements of tables without 
contact : — 

" On one occasion when eleven members of your Sub-com- 
mittee had been sitting around one of the dining-tables above 
described [a heavy mahogany dining-table in the private house 



50 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

of a member of the Committee] for forty minutes, and various 
motions and sounds had occurred, they, by way of test, turned 
the backs of their chairs to the table, at about nine inches from 
it. They all then knelt upon their chairs, placing their arms 
upon the backs thereof. In this position their feet were, of 
course, turned away from the table, and by no possibility could 
be placed under it or touch the floor. The hands of each person 
were extended over the table at about four inches from the 
surface. Contact, therefore, with any part of the table could 
not take place without detection. In less than a minute the 
table, untouched, moved four times, at first about five inches 
to one side, then about twelve inches to the opposite side, and 
then, in like manner, four inches and six inches respectively. 

The hands of all present were next placed on the backs of 
their chairs, and about a foot from the table, which again 
moved as before, five times, over spaces varying from four to 
six inches. Then all the chairs were removed twelve inches 
\_sic\ from the table and each person knelt on his chair as 
before, this time, however, folding his hands behind his back, 
his body being thus about eighteen inches from the table, and 
having the back of the chair between himself and the table. 
The table again moved four times in various directions. In 
the course of this conclusive experiment and in less than 
half an hour, the table thus moved, without contact, or possi- 
bility of contact, with any person present, thirteen times, the 
movements being in different directions, and some of them 
according to the request of various members of your Sub- 
committee. 

" The table was then carefully examined, turned upside 
down, and taken to pieces, but nothing was discovered to 
account for the phenomena. The experiment was conducted 
throughout in the full light of gas, above the table." x 

1 Report^ pp. 10, n. The account in the text is taken from the Report 
of the Sub-committee. The account of the same seance as given in the 
official minutes of the Sub-committee (presumably a contemporary document) 
presents various differences, of which the more important are : (i) That only 
eight persons are entered as being present. (2) That the gas was turned up 
higher, " so as to give abundance of light," after the first eight movements, 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 5 1 

In the detailed reports of the seances other 
similar phenomena occurring under the same con- 
ditions are recorded. The names of the Sub-com- 
mittee are not given, but it is stated that no 
professional medium was employed ; " the me- 
diumship being that of members of your Sub- 
committee, persons of good social position and 
unimpeachable integrity, having no pecuniary ob- 
ject to secure and nothing to gain by deception." 1 

The second Sub-committee, which sat also with- 
out professional mediums, reported, amongst other 
phenomena, the frequent occurrence of raps of an 
inexplicable nature, and showing an intelligent 
origin. 

Evidence of the Master of Lindsay. 

Many persons of position gave to the Committee, 
orally or in writing, descriptions of marvels ob- 
served by them. Amongst the most remarkable 
evidence was that tendered by the Master of 
Lindsay, now the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, 
F. R. S. He testified to having seen Home float 
about the room. He had also " frequently" seen 
Home's body elongated, on one occasion by as 
much as eleven inches, and on another by 
seventeen inches. The extent of the elongation 
was measured by placing Home against the wall 

from which it may be inferred that there was not " full light " throughout 
the experiments. (3) That the second series is stated to have consisted of 
four movements, not five as in the text. (4) That the actual number of 
separate movements in the last series is not stated. 
1 Io.,p. 8. 



52 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC A I RESEARCH. 

and marking on it the height to which his elongated 
body extended. The manifestation seems to have 
taken place in a good light, and it is recorded that 
on the first occasion Lord Adare (now Lord Dunra- 
ven) placed his foot on Home's instep, one hand on 
Home's shoulder, and the other on his side. Lord 
Lindsay's account of another manifestation can 
best be given in his own words : 

" I have frequently seen Home when in a trance go to the 
fire and take out large red-hot coals, and carry them about in 
his hands, put them inside his shirt, etc. Eight times I my- 
self have held a red-hot coal in my hands without injury, 
when it scorched my face on raising my hand. Once, I 
wished to see if they really would burn, and I said so, and 
touched a coal with the middle finger of my right hand, and I 
got a blister as large as a sixpence ; I instantly asked him to 
give me the coal and I held the part that burnt me, in the 
middle of my hand, for three or four minutes, without the 
least inconvenience. 

"A few weeks ago I was at a seance with eight others. Of 
these, seven held a red-hot coal without pain, and the two 
others could not bear the approach of it." i 

Two years later (1871), he thus describes in de- 
tail an instance of levitation to which he had re- 
ferred in his evidence before the Committee : 

" I was sitting with Mr. Home and Lord Adare and a 
cousin of his. During the sitting, Mr. Home went into a 
trance, and in that state was carried out of the window in the 
room next to where we were, and was brought in at our win- 
dow. The distance between the windows was about seven 
feet six inches, and there was not the slightest foothold be- 
tween them, nor was there more than a twelve-inch projection 

1 Pp. 208-9. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 53 

to each window, which served as a ledge to put flowers on. 
We heard the window in the next room lifted up, and almost 
immediately after we saw Home floating in the air outside our 
window. The moon was shining full into the room ; my back 
was to the light, and I saw the shadow on the wall of the 
window sill, and Home's feet about six inches above it. He 
remained in this position for a few seconds, then raised the 
window and glided into the room feet foremost and sat 
down." 

" Lord Adare then went into the next room to look at the 
window from which he had been carried. It was raised about 
eighteen inches, and he expressed his wonder how Mr. Home 
had been taken through so narrow an aperture. Home said, 
still entranced, ' I will show you,' and then with his back to 
the window he leaned back and was shot out of the aperture, 
head first, with the body rigid, and then returned quite 
quietly. The window is about seventy feet from the ground." x 

It should be added that Lord Adare and the 
cousin referred to, Captain C. Wynne, have given 
independent corroboration of Lord Lindsay's ac- 
count of this incident. 2 

Experiments of Mr. Crookes. 

But the experiments of Mr. Crookes with the 
same medium, Daniel Dunglas Home, constitute 
unquestionably the most important body of evid- 
ence for the operation of a new physical force. 
Mr. Crookes's training- as a chemist and physicist 
had rendered him specially qualified for the investi- 
gation. And his researches with Home appear 
throughout to have been conducted with due pre- 

J p. 214. 

2 See Life of D. D. Home, London, Trubner & Co., 1886, p. 307, and 
Journal, S.P.R., August, 1889, p. 108. 



54 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

cautions, and in circumstances specially favourable 
to the prevention or detection of fraud. The 
seances took place in Mr. Crookes's own house, or 
in that of some friend ; the sitters were all known 
to him personally, and for the most part regular 
attendants ; the room was on most occasions well 
lighted, so that the movements of the medium 
could be under continuous observation ; and Home 
himself appears, unlike other mediums, to have 
offered every facility for the investigation. Full 
notes of what occurred, with a careful statement 
of the conditions and the names of the sitters, were 
taken at the time. 1 

The experiments took place for the most part in 
the years 1870-73, and Mr. Crookes, in publishing 
some of his notes in 1889, claims that " certain of 
Home's phenomena fall quite outside the category 
of marvels producible by sleight of hand or pre- 
pared apparatus " and " prove to my mind the 
operation of that ' new force ' in whose existence I 
still firmly believe." 2 

If we pass over such manifestations as could 
without serious difficulty be explained by trickery, 
such as movements of various small objects, move- 
ments of articles of furniture in a dim light, the 
occurrence of raps and other sounds ; and such 

1 Notes of some of these seances are published in the Proceedings, S.P.R., 
vol. vi., pp. 98-127. The account in the text is taken partly from this source, 
partly from Mr. Crookes's articles in the Quarterly Journal of Science and 
elsewhere, republished in 1874 (J. Burns, London), under the title Re- 
searches in Spiritualism . 

2 Proceedings, S. P. R., vi., p. 99. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 55 

other occurrences as can be attributed to sensory 
hallucination or self-deception — mysterious lights, 
spirit hands, or phantom forms seen by one or two 
of the sitters, — we find the remainder of the 
phenomena group themselves under four heads. 
One or two instances of each group will be quoted. 

(1) Alteration in the Weight of Bodies. — The 
most convincing series of experiments under this 
head was conducted by means of a machine con- 
structed by Mr. Crookes on the lines of that pre- 
viously employed by Dr. Hare in the United 
States. The vase of water in these experiments was 
placed immediately over the fulcrum, a position in 
which it was practically impossible for the medium 
by any normal exercise of force to affect the balance, 
and a perforated copper vessel firmly supported on 
an independent iron stand was inserted in the 
water. Under such conditions there would be ob- 
served a sensible downward pull on the balance 
when Home's hand was inserted in the water. 
Sometimes indeed an effect was produced with- 
out contact at all. Thus, on one occasion, the 
automatic register showed a pull, when the light 
was dim, of nine pounds, and again, when the light 
was turned up, of two pounds. Both Home's hands 
were held throughout this experiment, and in the 
second case he was at some distance from the 
balance, and was not even in contact with the table, 
on which one end of the board rested. 

2. Movements of Objects without Contact. — One of 
the commonest manifestations under this head was 



56 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

the playing of an accordion, held by Home in one 
hand, the other hand being on the table, and the 
feet remaining under observation and motionless. 
On one occasion the accordion continued playing 
in the hands of one of the sitters after Home had 
ceased to touch it. On other occasions the instru- 
ment played when Home's hands and feet were 
held ; and remained suspended in the air without 
visible support. 1 

At one sitting, held on the 21st June, 1871, 
there was lying on the table a lath about 2 feet 
long and \\ inches wide, covered with white paper. 
"It was plainly visible to all." The position of 
the sitters had just been changed, and a message 
had been given, " Hands off the table and all 
joined." Then the narrative continues : 

" Presently the end of the lath, pointing toward Mr. Walter 
Crookes, rose up in the air to the height of about 10 inches. 
The other end then rose up to a height of about 5 inches, and the 
lath then floated about for more than a minute in this position, 
suspended in the air, with no visible means of support. It 
moved sideways and waved gently up and down, just like a 
piece of wood on the top of small waves of the sea. The 
lower end then gently sank till it touched the table and the 
other end then followed. 

"Whilst we were speaking about this wonderful exhibition 
of force, the lath began to move again, and rising up as it did 
at first, it waved about in a somewhat similar manner. The 
startling novelty of this movement having now worn off, we 
were all enabled to follow its motions with more accuracy. 
Mr. Home was sitting away from the table at least three feet 
from the lath all this time ; he was apparently quite motionless, 

1 Loc. cit., pp. 113, 118, etc. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. $? 

and his hands were tightly grasped, his right by Mrs. Wr. 
Crookes and his left by Mrs. Wm. Crookes. Any movement 
by his feet was impossible, as, owing to the large cage * being 
under the table, his legs were not able to be put beneath, but 
were visible to those on each side of him. All the others had 
hold of hands." a 

3. Levitation of Mr. Home. — At a sitting held 
on the 30th July, 1871, when the gas had been 
turned out, and the room was illuminated by three 
spirit lamps, Mr. Home was levitated. He had 
been standing up and the accordion had been play- 
ing a tune when held at arm's length in one hand. 
He then let go of the accordion, which moved off 
and continued to play in the air. 

" Mr. Home then walked to the open space in the room 
between Mrs. I.'s chair and the sideboard, and stood there 
quite upright and quiet. He then said, ' I 'm rising, I 'm 
rising ' ; when we all saw him rise from the ground slowly to 
a height of about six inches, remain there for about 10 seconds, 
and then slowly descend. From my position I could not see 
his feet, but I distinctly saw his head, projected against the 
opposite wall, rise up, and Mr. Wr. Crookes, who was sitting 
near where Mr. Home was, said that his feet were in the air. 
There was no stool or other thing near which could have aided 
him. Moreover the movement was a smooth, continuous glide 
upwards. 

"Whilsf this was going on we heard the accordion fall 
heavily to the ground. It had been suspended in the air 
behind the chair where Mr. Home had been sitting. When it 
fell, Mr. Home was about 10 feet from it." 3 

A phenomenon of the same kind occurred at a 
seance held on April 21, 1872. A message had 
just been given, "Try less light." 

1 An upright cylinder of about two feet in diameter used in these tests to 
isolate the accordion. 2 Pp. 111-112. 3 P. 119. 



58 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

" Mr. Home then nearly disappeared under the table in a 
curious attitude, then he was (still in his chair) wheeled out 
from under the table still in the same attitude, his feet out in 
front, off the ground. He was then sitting almost horizon- 
tally, his shoulders resting on his chair. 

" He asked Mrs. Wr. Crookes to remove the chair from under 
him, as it was not supporting him. He was then seen to be 
sitting in the air supported by nothing visible. 

" Then Mr. Home rested the extreme top of his head on a 
chair, and his feet on the sofa. He said he felt supported in 
the middle very comfortably. The chair then moved away of 
its own accord and Mr. Home rested flat over the floor behind 
Mrs. Wr. Crookes." 1 

4. Handling of Hot Coals and Other Objects. — 
Mr. Crookes on several occasions saw Home hand- 
ling hot coals, apparently without inconvenience. 
Two such instances are described as follows. In the 
first case, two out of four lighted candles had been 
put out shortly before the "fire test" was given. 

" Mr. Home again went to the fire, and, after stirring the 
hot coal about with his hand, took out a red-hot piece nearly 
as big as an orange, and, putting it on his right hand, covered 
it over with his left hand so as to almost completely enclose 
it, and then blew into the small furnace thus extemporised 
until the lump of charcoal was nearly white-hot, and then drew 
my attention to the lambent flame which was flickering over 
the coal and licking round his fingers ; he fell on his knees, 
looked up in a reverent manner, held up the coal in front, and 
said : ' Is not God good ? Are not His laws wonderful ? '" 2 

The second account is taken from a contempo- 
raneous letter written by Mr. Crookes to Mrs. 
Honey wood. The nature of the light is not 
stated. 

1 p. 126. 2 Pp. 103, 104. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 59 

"At Mr. Home's request, whilst he was entranced, I went 
with him to the fireplace in the back drawing-room. He said, 
'We want you to notice particularly what Dan is doing.' Ac- 
cordingly I stood close to the fire, and stooped down to it 
when he put his hands in. 

" Mr. Home then waved the handkerchief about in the air 
two or three times, held it above his head and then folded it 
up and laid it on his hand like a cushion ; putting his other 
hand into the fire, he took out a large lump of cinder red-hot 
at the lower part, and placed the red part on the handkerchief. 
Under ordinary circumstances it would have been in a blaze. 
In about half a minute, he took it off the handkerchief with 
his hand, saying, 'As the power is not strong, if we leave the 
coal longer it will burn.' He then put it on his hand and 
brought it to the table in the front room, where all but myself 
had remained seated." 

5. Materialisation. — Similar phenomena to those 
above described Mr. Crookes had also observed 
with other mediums ; but the facilities for observ- 
ation appear to have been greater with Home than 
with others. But there is one manifestation which 
Mr. Crookes seems not to have witnessed in Home's 
presence, — the appearance of materialised spirit 
forms. In some articles which were written in 
the early part of 1874 and republished in "Re- 
searches in Spiritualism, he describes some seances, 
held mostly at his house in London, with Miss 
Cook as medium, in which a spirit form named 
" Katie " appeared. The materialised spirit walked 
about amongst the sitters, and allowed herself to 
be handled, and even photographed. 

Mr. Crookes thus describes the first occasion on 
which he saw " Katie" and Miss Cook at the same 



60 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

time, and thus obtained "absolute proof" that 
" Katie " was what she claimed to be, a spirit form. 
The seance was held on the 29th March, 1874, in a 
house at Hackney, not Mr. Crookes's own. At 
Katie's request the gas was turned out and Mr. 
Crookes, carrying a phosphorus lamp, went into the 
dark room which was used for a cabinet, 

" and felt about for Miss Cook. I found her crouching on the 
floor. Kneeling down, I let air enter the lamp, and by its 
light I saw the young lady dressed in black velvet, as she had 
been in the early part of the evening, and to all appearance 
perfectly senseless. She did not move when I took her hand 
and held the light quite close to her face, but continued 
quietly breathing. Raising the lamp, I looked around and 
saw Katie standing close behind Miss Cook. She was robed 
in flowing white drapery, as we had seen her previously during 
the seance. Holding one of Miss Cook's hands in mine, and 
still kneeling, I passed the lamp up and down so as to illumin- 
ate Katie's whole figure, and satisfied myself thoroughly that 
I was really looking at the veritable Katie whom I had 
clasped in my arms a few minutes before, and not at the 
phantasm of a disordered brain. She did not speak, but 
moved her head and smiled in recognition. Three separate 
times did I carefully examine Miss Cook crouching before me, 
to be sure that the hand I held was that of a living woman, 
and three separate times did I turn the lamp to Katie and ex- 
amine her with steadfast scrutiny, until I had no doubt what- 
ever of her objective reality." * 

Mr. Crookes gives many details of Katie's per- 
sonal appearance, and of the differences in com- 
plexion, height, and dress observed in Miss Cook. 
In a later article he describes the photographing of 
Katie. The seances took place at Mr. Crookes's 

1 Researches in Spiritualism, pp. 106, 107. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 6l 

house, and Miss Cook herself was frequently 
staying in the house at the time, sometimes remain 
ing for a week together. The library was used as 
a dark cabinet, and a curtain was suspended over 
the doorway communicating between it and the 
laboratory, where Mr. Crookes and his friends 
were seated. When all was ready Katie would 
come from behind the curtain into the laboratory, 
which was illuminated by electric light. Five 
cameras were focused simultaneously on the spirit 
form. In all, forty-four negatives were taken. 

But the time at length came for Katie to take 
her departure. The closing seance is thus de- 
scribed. Having given some final directions, 
which were taken down in shorthand, for the 
future guidance of the circle and the protection of 
Miss Cook, 

"Katie invited me in to the cabinet with her, and allowed 
me to remain there to the end. After closing the curtain she 
conversed with me for some time, and then walked across the 
room to where Miss Cook was lying senseless on the floor. 
Stooping over her, Katie touched her and said: 'Wake up, 
Florrie, wake up ! I must leave you now.' Miss Cook then 
woke and tearfully entreated Katie to stay a little time longer. 
1 My dear, I can 't ; my work is done. God bless you,' Katie 
replied, and then continued speaking to Miss Cook. For sev- 
eral minutes the two were conversing with each other, till at 
last Miss Cook's tears prevented her speaking. Following 
Katie's instructions I then came forward to support Miss 
Cook, who was falling on to the floor sobbing hysterically. I 
looked round, but the white-robed Katie had gone. As soon 
as Miss Cook was sufficiently calmed a light was procured and 
I led hej out of the cabinet." 1 

1 Researches, p. in. 



62 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

In February, 1875, Mr. Crookes, assisted by Dr. 
Huggins and others, held a seance with another 
medium, Mrs. Fay. The medium was seated in 
Mr. Crookes's library, and her hands grasped two 
wires attached to a battery, her body being thus 
made to complete an electric circuit. A galvano- 
meter, which flashed light on to a graduated scale, 
was placed in the adjoining room, in a position 
where the scale was clearly visible to the circle of 
experimenters. Under these conditions, whilst the 
light remained steady on the scale, showing that 
the resistance was practically uniform, a bell was 
rung and a musical box was wound up in the 
library ; a hand was shown at the curtain which 
hung over the doorway ; and a book and a library 
ladder were pushed through the opening. Finally 
there was a slight noise, the circuit was broken, 
and the medium was discovered in a fainting 
condition. 1 

Experiences of Mr. Stainton Moses. 

But one of the most persistent and continuous, 
and in some respects most remarkable, series of 
spiritual manifestations was furnished through the 
mediumship of Mr. Stainton Moses. Mr. Moses, 
born in 1839, was educated at Bedford and Exeter 
College, Oxford, and began life as a clergyman in 
the Church of England. He was also a frequent 
contributor to the Press. In 1871 he became a 

1 Medium and Daybreak, March 12, 1875. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 63 

Master at University College School, and retained 
that position until about three years before his 
death in 1892. His attention was first seriously 
directed to the subject of Spiritualism in the 
spring of 1872. He at once began to hold seances 
with two or three intimate friends, of whom the 
most constant attendants were Dr. and Mrs. Stan- 
hope Speer. The seances were generally held in 
the dark ; and Mr. Moses himself was entranced 
for a great part of them, during the progress of the 
most striking phenomena. Nevertheless, partly 
from his recollection of what occurred when he was 
in his normal state, partly from what was told him by 
the other members of the small circle, he compiled 
detailed accounts of the various manifestations, 
which formed the basis during his lifetime of 
various articles and books, and from which, since 
his death, a selection has been published by Mr. 
Myers, under the heading, Experiences of W. 
Stainton Moses. 1 Dr. and Mrs. Speer also took 
brief contemporaneous notes of the seances ; and 
for the purposes of the present work I shall by 
preference quote from their notes, as given in the 
articles referred to in our Proceedings, rather than 
from the more detailed accounts written by Mr. 
Moses himself. 

Manifestations of the most surprising kind were 
obtained almost at once and continued in full 
force until the end of 1874, after which period sit- 
tings for physical phenomena appear to have been 

1 In Proceedings, S. P.P. (ix., pp. 245-353, and xi., pp. 24-113). 



64 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

held less frequently, until 1880, from which time 
no more manifestations of this kind occurred. 

Musical Sounds. — Raps and musical sounds, as 
they were the earliest, were also amongst the most 
frequent and characteristic phenomena observed 
through Stainton Moses' mediumship. Mrs. Speer 
records the occurrence of raps and tilts of the table 
as early as June, 1872. Later the raps became 
louder, answered questions, and communicated in- 
formation. Sometimes, especially at the earlier 
seances, the noises appear to have been of quite 
startling intensity. Dr. Speer writes of extraor- 
dinary metallic blows, tremendous raps imitating 
and exceeding those which he could make with a 
percussion hammer ; and sounds as of a heavy 
tread walking about, which shook objects in the 
room. Later the musical sounds developed in fre- 
quency and variety. Mrs. Speer describes them in 
September, 1874, assigning each sound to a separate 
spirit, as resembling the notes of a harp, tambour- 
ine, double bass, high notes played on a small harp, 
instruments of three or four strings played by two 
ancient Egyptian spirits, a seven-stringed instru- 
ment played by a third Egyptian spirit, Roophal, 
once a priest in the temple of Osiris ; the sound of 
a drum, of a china plate struck with a hammer, and 
a sweet tinkling sound like a clear bell, named by 
the sitters " fairy bells." A blast as from a trumpet 
was heard on one occasion, also playing on a piano. 

Lights. — The following is the description given 
by Dr. Speer of lights observed at a seance held on 
31st December, 1872 : 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 6$ 

"A column of light about seven feet high was seen to move 
round the room, and about two feet to right of the column 
was a large glowing mass of light. The column of light I 
placed my hand upon, as seen on the wall. High barometer, 
30 ; dark. During the time Imperator was entrancing the 
medium, and conversing with us through him, we saw a large 
bright cross of light behind the medium's head, rays surround- 
ing it ; after this it culminated into a beautiful line of light of 
great brilliancy, reaching several feet high, and moving from 
side to side. Behind this column of light on the floor was a 
bright cluster of lights in oblong shape. These remained for 
more than half an hour, and upon asking Imperator the mean- 
ing of the lights, he said the pillar of light was himself ; the 
bright light behind him, his attendant, and the numerous 
lights seen in the room belonged to the band. The light 
around the medium's head showed his great spiritual power." ' 

At a seance held on June 21, 1873, Dr. Speer 
records that between thirty and forty spirit lights 
appeared, many of them as large as large oranges. 
Apparently they did not appear simultaneously, as 
it is mentioned that " they succeeded each other 
with great rapidity " (ib. y p. 313). At another time 
fifteen great lights are reported, "varying from the 
size of an orange to that of a shaddock " (z'6., p. 23 1). 
Dr. Speer's notes of a seance on June 23, 1872, are 
as follows : 

" We had this day fitted up a cabinet by opening the door of 
the bath-room, and hanging in front of it a heavy curtain with 
a square aperture. Mr. M. sat in this cabinet upon a reclining 
chair. Large lights soon appeared, and did so about fifty 
times. They emerged from the aperture, and came into the 
room, casting reflections upon objects. Some were so large 
and bright as to show the whole of the lintels and door-posts. 
They came very close to the table upon which our hands were 
placed." {Id., p. 313.) 

1 Proceedings, S. P. P., p. 297. 



66 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

The lights are minutely described, on some occa- 
sions as being of various forms approximating to 
the circular, sometimes with an indistinct outline 
and a bright nucleus ; the colour a pale greenish- 
blue. On one occasion one of these lights knocked 
several times on the table, producing a noise such 
as would be made by a hard substance. Sometimes 
hands, and even an arm, were seen holding the 
lights. Some of the larger lights were covered 
with drapery, which Dr. Speer was allowed to feel, 
and which he describes as distinct and tangible 
material, resembling India muslin. 

Scents were a frequent and characteristic form of 
manifestation at Mr. Moses' seances. In his notes 
of June, 1873, Dr. Speer frequently mentions the 
introduction of scents, chiefly rose and verbena ; 
sometimes a shower of liquid scent, sometimes a 
column of cold scented air. In July of the same 
year, heliotrope and jasmine scents were showered 
down. On August 1st, the scent of sandalwood 
" was freely scattered, and on my asking for more, 
we heard a sound like a prolonged wh-sh, and 
then a quantity was actually squirted in my face." 
In November, 1874, it is recorded that wet scent, 
of verbena and sandalwood, oozed several times 
during the day from the crown of Mr. Moses' 
head. 1 Dr. Speer mentions that some of this spirit 
perfume which was showered down at their seances 
was preserved and bottled. But he does not seem 
to have had the curiosity to analyse it. 

1 Proceedings, S. P. R., xi., p. 59. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 67 

Direct Spirit- Writing was frequently obtained. 
Dr. Speer thus describes one occasion : 

" March 25th (1873). The best and minutest spirit-writing 
(direct) yet obtained, and signed by four spirits, viz. : Imper- 
ator, Rector, Doctor, and Prudens. N. B. — The paper was 
carefully examined by us all immediately before extinguishing 
the lights, and I myself kicked the pencil away from the 
paper. The writing was unden?iost." 

On another occasion (January 5, 1874) Charles 
Louis Napoleon Buonaparte announced his pres- 
ence by raps. The face of the dead Emperor was 
seen and described by the medium, but by no other 
members of the circle. The spirit was requested 
to write on a marked sheet of paper, and at the 
close of the seance his initials C. L. N. B. were 
found written in a firm, bold hand. 1 

Introduction of Objects. — It frequently happened 
that articles made their appearance in the seance 
room — the doors of which were of course closed — 
which had apparently been brought from other 
parts of the house. Amongst the objects so intro- 
duced at various times, as recorded by Dr. Speer, 
were a blue enamel cross, a pair of Sevres salad 
tongs, a candlestick, a chamois horn, a silver salver, 
flowers, a biscuit, gravel, large stones, etc. On 
May 9, 1873, when the seance was held at Dr. 
Speer's house, a bookmarker was brought down- 
stairs from Dr. and Mrs. Speer's bedroom ; and on 
the 14th two other objects were brought downstairs 
from a box in the bedroom. On October 14th, in 

1 lb., xi., p. 32. 



68 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

the same year, at a sitting at Dr. Speer's house, a 
silver fruit-knife was brought from a workbox in 
the dining-room, a marble statuette from the spare 
bedroom, and a snuffbox from the chimney-piece 
of Dr. Speer's dressing-room. At the close of a 
sitting on September 14, 1873, Mrs. Speer records 
that a small heap of seed pearls was found in front 
of each of the sitters. 

Mr. Moses mentions that, in addition to pearls, 
a ruby, sapphire, emerald, moonstone, and other 
gems were brought ; also two small cameos, which 
were cut by the spirit " Mentor" during the seance, 
and found at its conclusion amid the debris of the 
shell. 

Formation of a Cross in Daylight. — This phe- 
nomenon is thus described by Dr. Speer. 

" On Sunday morning, August 18, 1872, my wife and family,, 
and the Rev. W. Moses, who had only arrived on Friday night, 
went to St. George's Church, Douglas, Isle of Man. On re- 
turning, the latter went into his bedroom, and immediately 
came out and called me to witness the manner in which, dur- 
ing his absence, certain articles of toilet, etc., to wit, a writing- 
case, a fly-book, and a pocket note-book, had been systemati- 
cally placed on the centre of the bed. We at once noticed 
the crucial appearance exhibited, and hazarded a guess as to 
the intention thereof. We left the room and shortly after re- 
turned, when we found that a skull-cap, lying on the chest of 
drawers, had been placed on the bedpost, while the clerical 
white collar which Mr. M. had removed not many minutes 
before had been placed like a halo around the upper portion 
of the developing cross. (It should here be noticed that our 
expressed surmises as to the design apparently in progress 
were confirmed by various loud distinct raps on the footboard.) 
We again left the room for a time, and found that now the 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 69 

lower limb of the cross had been lengthened by the addition 
of two ivory-backed clothes-brushes. We descended to din- 
ner, having locked the door and taken the key with us. After 
dinner, and while sitting round the table at dessert, the con- 
versation naturally (on the children leaving) reverted to these 
extraordinary proceedings, when immediately manifestations 
commenced all around Mr. Moses — raps on the table, thuds 
on the floor, raps, loud and repeated, on the back of his chair. 
A tune played on the table with my fingers was accurately 
imitated, the table with all on it was moved out of its place, 
and everything shaken. This was put a stop to by request, 
but the milder phenomena persisted, and, it may be said 
once for all, continued till 9 p.m. Mr. M. suggested that I 
should go up to his room again. I did so, and found on un- 
locking the door that two paper-knives had been placed like 
rays to the right and left of the cross-bar of the cross. I 
again locked the door, put the key in my pocket, and came 
downstairs. In about half-an-hour we returned, and found 
that two additional articles had been appended. We again 
left and locked the door, and on return after another half-hour 
the cross had been fully developed into halo and rays, while 
the skull-cap had been placed above all as in a crown." x 

Dr. Speer adds that, before the articles were re- 
stored to their proper position, paper and pencil 
were placed on the bed, and a written message re- 
ceived from the spirit performers. 

Levitation of Mr. Moses. — The only full account 
of this phenomenon is that given by Mr. Moses him- 
self. He thus describes an incident of the kind. 

"One day (August 30, 1872) the little organ was violently 
thrown down in a distant corner of the room, and I felt my 
chair drawn back from the table and turned into the corner 
near which I sat. It was so placed that my face was turned 
away from the circle to the angle made by the two walls. In 
x lb., ix., p. 265. 



yo STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

this position the chair was raised from the floor to a distance 
of, I should judge, twelve or fourteen inches. My feet touched 
the top of the skirting-board, which would be about twelve 
inches in height. The chair remained suspended for a few mo- 
ments, and I then felt myself going from it, higher and higher, 
with a very slow and easy movement. I had no sense of dis- 
comfort, nor of apprehension. I was perfectly conscious of 
what was being done, and described the process to those who 
were sitting at the table. The movement was very steady, and 
occupied what seemed a long time before it was completed. 
I was close to the wall, so close that I was able to put a pencil 
firmly against my chest, and to mark the spot opposite to me 
on the wall-paper. That mark, when measured afterwards, was 
found to be rather more than six feet from the floor, and, from 
its position, it was clear that my head must have been in the 
very corner of the room, close to the ceiling. I do not think 
that I was in any way entranced. I was perfectly clear in my 
mind, quite alive to what was being done, and fully conscious 
of the curious phenomenon. I felt no pressure on any part of 
my body, only a sensation as of being in a lift, whilst objects 
seemed to be passing away from below me. I remember a 
slight difficulty in breathing, and a sensation of fulness in the 
chest, with a general feeling of being lighter than the atmo- 
sphere. I was lowered down quite gently, and placed in the 
chair, which had settled in its old position. The measure- 
ments and observations were taken immediately, and the 
marks which I had made with my pencil were noted. My 
voice was said at the time to sound as if from the corner of 
the room, close to the ceiling." l 

The only record of a levitation given by Dr. Speer 
is contained in a brief note of a seance held on 
December 3, 1872. 

" Stance downstairs at large round table. Manifestations 
slow, some complaining of same ; the table suddenly tilted 
up with considerable force, and oscillated at a great angle. 

1 Human Nature, 1874, pp. 172, 173. Proceedings, S. P. R., ix., p. 261.. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. ?I 

This occurred several times. Mr. M. was moved about, and 
floated twice, and a large dining-room chair was placed on 
the table. I, sitting in a large, heavy arm-chair, was for the 
first time distinctly moved." 

Mrs. Speer adds that the seance was held by 
firelight. 

It should be added that several of the phenomena 
above described as occurring in the presence of 
Mr. Stainton Moses were observed, and have been 
attested, by other witnesses, amongst whom are 
Mr. F.W. Percival, Mr. Charlton T. Speer, and Miss 
Constance R. Speer. 

Experiments of Professor Zollner. 

In 1877-8, as already mentioned, Professor 
Zollner, of Leipsic, assisted occasionally by his 
colleagues, Professors Scheibner and Fechner, and 
Professor Wilhelm P. Weber, held a series of sit- 
tings with the medium Slade. It would be impossi- 
ble within due limits to describe all the phenomena 
which Zollner claims to have observed in Slade's 
presence. These included direct spirit-writing on 
closed slates ; the production of abnormal lights 
and shadows ; the impression of a naked foot, 
smaller than Slade's, on a smoked paper ; showers 
of a fluid supposed to be water, which wetted the 
observers ; the sudden apparition of smoke and 
fire ; movements of objects of various kinds ; and 
the introduction of objects from outside the room. 
It is to be regretted that they did not include the 



72 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

conversion of dextro-rotatory tartaric acid into 
lsevo-rotatory racemic acid. Zollner, who attached 
some theoretical importance to this particular ex- 
periment, had prepared a tube full of concentrated 
tartaric acid, in connection with a polariscope, and 
introduced it to Slade's notice at one of the earliest 
sittings of the series. But the conversation, as re- 
marked by Zollner, took another turn, and the 
racemic acid was never produced. 1 

But some of the most remarkable experiences, 
those, in fact, on which Zollner s theory of four- 
dimensional space mainly rested, must be recorded 
in full. 

(i) During Slade's first visit to Leipsic in De- 
cember, 1877, Zollner had placed some coins — a 
five-mark piece and two smaller coins — in two small 
cardboard boxes, which had been securely fastened 
by gluing strip upon strip of paper round the sides. 
During Slade's second visit, at a seance held in 
May, 1878, these boxes were placed upon the table, 
Zollner having first satisfied himself by shaking 
them that the coins were still inside. Zollner had 
not himself recorded the dates and other particulars 
of the enclosed coins. In the course of the seance 
a five-mark piece and two smaller coins (a ten 
pfennige and a two pfennige) successively made 
their appearance on the slate held under the table. 
One of the two cardboard boxes on the table when 
opened was found to be empty, the other contained 
only two small pieces of slate-pencil, resembling 

1 Transcendental Physics, pp. 50, 51 (English edition). 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 73 

those which had shortly before been placed on the 
slate. 

(2) At another sitting, held on May 9, 1878, 
Zollner was alone with Slade, in his usual sitting 
room. Two wooden rings about four inches in 
diameter, which had figured at previous seances, to- 
gether with a band cut out of bladder, were strung 
on to a piece of catgut, and were sealed with 
Zollner's own seal. It was hoped that the wooden 
rings, which were cut out of the solid wood, the 
one of ash, the other of alder, would be found 
interlaced — a most satisfactory proof of super-nor- 
mal force. The rings hung on the catgut below 
the table, Zollner keeping his hands on the sealed 
ends of the catgut which lay on the surface of the 
table. A rattling sound was heard at a small round 
table which stood in the room. The seance was 
then closed, and the table was examined. It was 
a small round table with a single leg supported on 
three feet, and a fixed top. Encircling the leg were 
found the two rings. It was inferred by Zollner 
that they reached this position by abnormal means, 
since to have placed them there by ordinary methods 
it would have been necessary to remove either the 
feet or the top of the table. 

(3) A phenomenon obtained on the 17th De- 
cember, 1877, was the production of knots in an 
endless cord. Zollner had on the previous evening 
taken a couple of pieces of new hempen cord. He 
had sealed the free ends of each piece on to a piece 
of cardboard. As shown in an illustration in Zoll- 



74 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC A I RESEARCH. 

ner's book, one of these cords was found at the end 
of the seance to have four knots in it, such as could 
only have been formed normally by passing the free 
end of the cord through a loop. The following is 
Zollner' s description of the experiment : 

" 1 myself selected one of the four sealed cords, and in order 
never to lose sight of it, before we sat down at the table I hung 
it around my neck — the seal in front always within my sight. 
During the seance, as previously stated, I constantly kept the 
seal — remaining unaltered — before me on the table. Mr. 
Slade's hands remained all the time in sight ; with the left he 
often touched his forehead, complaining of painful sensations. 
The portion of the string hanging down rested on my lap, — 
out of my sight it is true, — but Mr. Slade's hands always re- 
mained visible to me. I particularly noticed that Mr. Slade's 
hands were not withdrawn or changed in position. He him- 
self appeared to be perfectly passive, so that we cannot advance 
the assertion of his having tied those knots by his conscious 
will, but only that they, under these detailed circumstances, 
were formed in his presence without visible contact, and in a 
room illuminated by bright daylight." 1 

(4) Another phenomenon is thus described. 
The small round table previously referred to stood 
near the table at which Zollner was sitting alone 
with Slade, and on the side farthest from Zollner, 
in such a position that only its top could be seen. 
Presently the table oscillated : 

" The motions very soon became greater, and the whole 
table approaching the card-table laid itself under the latter, 
with its three feet turned towards me. Neither I nor, as it 
seemed, Mr. Slade, knew how the phenomenon would develop, 
since during the space of a minute which now elapsed, nothing 

1 Op. cit., pp. 17-18. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. J$ 

whatever occurred. Slade was about to take slate and pencil 
to ask his ' spirits ' whether we had anything still to expect, 
when I wished to take a nearer view of the position of the 
round table, lying, as I supposed, under the card-table. To 
my and Slade's great astonishment we found the space beneath 
the card-table completely empty, nor were we able to find in 
all the rest of the room that table which only a minute before 
was present to our senses. In the expectation of its reappear- 
ance we sat again at the card-table, Slade close to me, at the 
same angle of the table opposite that near which the round 
table had stood before. We might have sat about five or six 
minutes in intense expectation of what should come, when 
suddenly Slade again asserted that he saw lights in the air ; 
although I, as usual, could perceive nothing whatever of the 
kind, I yet followed involuntarily with my gaze the directions 
to which Slade turned his head, during all which time our 
hands remained constantly on the table* resting on each other <L 
[iibereinander liegend]. Under the table my left leg was 
almost continually touching Slade's right in its whole extent, 
which was quite without design and owing to our proximity at 
the same corner of the table. Looking up in the air eagerly 
and astonished in different directions, Slade asked me if I did 
not perceive the great lights. I answered decidedly in the 
negative ; but as I turned my head, following Slade's gaze up 
to the ceiling of the room behind my back, I suddenly ob- 
served, at the height of about five feet, the hitherto invisible 
table, with its legs turned upwards, very quickly floating down 
in the air upon the top of the card-table. This took place at 
half-past eleven on the morning of the 6th May, 1878." * 

In any attempt to estimate the value of the evi- 
dence for super-normal agency derived from the ob- 
servations of Zollner and his colleagues, it must not 
be forgotten that Slade had already been detected 
in fraud on at least one occasion ; and that the mani- 

1 Op. cit., pp. 90-91. 



y6 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

festation which formed his chief stock-in-trade in 
this country — slate-writing — has been again and 
again produced, under similar and even more exact- 
ing conditions, by pure legerdemain (see Chapter 
IV.). Moreover, the performances described by 
Zollner are such as would not seriously task the 
powers of an expert conjurer, (i) The little card- 
board boxes, from which the coins were extracted, 
had been prepared and sealed some months before 
the experiment actually took place ; and we cannot 
say that Slade had not had ample opportunity for 
preparing other boxes like them and effecting a 
substitution. The same criticism applies to (3), the 
production of knots in an endless cord. In his de- 
tailed account of the experiment, indeed, Zollner 
does not mention that the experiment had been 
tried on previous occasions and had failed. But 
that this was the case appears, as Mrs. Sidgwick 
has shown, from an incidental reference in another 
part of his voluminous book {Abhandlungen, vol. 
ii., p. 1 191) as to the difficulty he experienced in 
making the spirits understand what kind of knots 
he required, and to the production in the first 
instance of knots of another kind. 1 It seems prob- 
able that the explanation of the feat with the 
wooden rings was also of this kind, z. e. y that two 
counterfeit rings were threaded on the leg of the 
table before the sitting commenced, and that Slade, 
in the course of the seance, found an opportunity 
to remove the original pair of rings, threaded on 

1 See Mrs. Sidgwick's article in Proc. S. P. R., vol. iv., p. 65, footnote. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. J J 

the catgut, and to substitute another catgut. It 
will be noticed that at this sitting, as also at the 
sitting described in (4), Zollner was alone with 
Slade. In his account of the seance, the only 
reference which Zollner makes to the small table 
on which the rings were found after the seance is 
as follows : " The small round table, already re- 
ferred to, was placed shortly after our entry into 
the room in the position shown in the picture." 
From which it may be inferred that Zollner did 
not himself before the seance touch or examine 
the table. In experiment (4) the artifice by which 
Slade distracted Zollner's attention from the reap- 
pearing table is too obvious to call for comment. 

In face of Zollner's own description and uncon- 
scious admissions, it hardly seems necessary to 
discuss the question whether or not he was, at the 
time of the experiments, suffering from incipient 
mental derangement. That he was labouring under 
strong emotional excitement ; that he was pos- 
sessed with the idea of obtaining experimental 
verification for his hypothesis of four-dimensional 
space ; that he was quite ignorant of any of the 
devices of conjurers ; and that he accepted Slade's 
phenomena in the spirit in which they were offered 
— all this is evident from his own narrative. As 
regards the corroborative testimony of Professors 
Fechner, Scheibner, and Weber, Professor G. S. 
Fullerton, who visited Germany, on behalf of the 
Seybert Commission, in 1886, had interviews with 
all three gentlemen on the subject ; and learnt from 




yS STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

their own lips that the first two, at any rate, 
though disposed to think that what they saw could 
not be attributed to jugglery, were not convinced of 
any supernormal agency in the matter ; and that they 
both suffered from defective eyesight, and relied 
more upon Zollner's powers of observation than their 
own. Professor Weber, indeed, maintained his 
belief in the phenomena as genuine ; but in weigh- 
ing his testimony it should be borne in mind that 
he was seventy-four years old at the time, and en- 
tirely ignorant, by his own admission, of the 
possibilities of jugglery. 1 

Such then was the position at this time. On 
the one hand, as shown in the last chapter, was an 
important social or even religious movement of an 
international character, which claimed a considerable 
number of more or less credulous adherents, and was 
based on certain alleged occurrences, which in many 
cases were unquestionably due to deliberate and 
systematic imposture. On the other hand, there was 
a small body of men whose opinions and testimony 
in any matter could not be lightly disregarded, 
who believed in and testified of their own experi- 
ence to things which seemed, and perhaps still 
seem, inexplicable by any known cause. It was 
not easy to dismiss the whole subject as unworthy 
of investigation. The explanation of the facts 
recorded by Mr. Crookes and others does not lie on 
the surface. It may be that these facts will 

1 Preliminary Report of the Seybert Commission on Spiritualism, pp. 
104-114. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 79 

ultimately find their explanation in causes neither 
remote nor unfamiliar. But certainly no one at 
that time, and perhaps no one now, is in a position 
to affirm, with such certainty as we bring to the 
other affairs of life, what the explanation may be. 
And whatever may be thought of the phenomena, 
it remains a palpable fact that there were tens, 
perhaps even hundreds, of thousands 1 in this and 
other civilised countries, who had adopted a par- 
ticular interpretation of these phenomena ; that 
their conduct was influenced, their lives shaped, 
their aspirations determined, by that interpretation. 
The extraordinary growth of the movement, the 
number of its adherents, and their fidelity through 
evil and good report, made Spiritualism an import- 
ant historical fact. If the beliefs and ideas of this 
large body of men and women were indeed based 
on fraud and delusion, it became a matter of some 
social importance to expose the deception. And 
it is clear that nothing short of a systematic and 
organised effort was likely to accomplish what was 
required. We have seen in what temper occasional 
revelations of fraud were received, not merely by 
the untrained Spiritualist, but by those who, in 
virtue of their education and position, might claim 
to be the leaders of the movement. So long as it 
was possible to appeal to unexplained marvels in 
the past, so long was it easy to most minds to regard 
each successive exposure of trickery as an isolated 

1 Mr. Crookes wrote, in 1871, that Spiritualism " numbers its adherents 
"by millions." — Researches in Spiritualism, p. 33. 



80 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

incident. It was manifest indeed that the mediums 
had not suffered irretrievably, either in purse or 
reputation, from repeated exposures. Their busi- 
ness had, no doubt, met with a slight check in the 
interval between 1876 and 1882, but this was 
partly due to the rival attractions of Theosophy 
and the thaumaturgic feats of Madame Blavatsky, 
which had drawn off some of their wealthier and 
more cultured patrons. The Spiritualist news- 
papers still recorded, though not, perhaps, with 
the same prodigal abundance as of old, accounts of 
marvellous manifestations witnessed at seances. 
In short, at this period Spiritualism and Theosophy 
between them could probably reckon at least as 
many and as influential adherents as at any time 
since the commencement of the movement in 1848. 



CHAPTER IV. 

SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 

IN the interval between 1878, the year of Zoll- 
ner's experiments with Slade, and 1882, when 
the Society for Psychical Research was founded, 
no physical manifestations occurred worthy to be 
recorded. D. D. Home had retired into private 
life some years before. Mr. Moses' physical 
phenomena had ceased in 1880 or thereabouts. 
Slade was, indeed, willing, it was understood, to 
give sittings, but was prevented from coming to 
England by reason of the legal proceedings which 
Professor Lankester had instituted against him in 
1876, and which were still pending. Mrs. Fay, 
Miss Florence Cook (Mrs. Corner), and other 
noted mediums of an earlier generation had with- 
drawn or were shortly to withdraw themselves from 
a career which had proved more hazardous than 
lucrative. Perhaps they heard Dr. Hodgson and 
the new generation knocking at the door. There 
were still, indeed, phenomena of a kind. Eglinton 
continued to give slate-writing performances for 
some years ; and both he and other physical 
mediums exhibited materialisations — sometimes in 
surprising variety — at dark seances. Indeed, dark 



82 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

seances for materialisations, though now much 
more difficult of access to those who have given 
no pledges of fidelity, have continued down to the 
present time. And from time to time exposures 
occur of the same old methods of fraud, followed 
by the same intrepid apologetics from the stalwart 
Spiritualist. Thus, to take two of the most recent 
cases, in October, 1894, Mrs. Mellon {nee Fair- 
lamb) was seized in Sydney, N. S. W., when per- 
sonating the spirit form of a little black girl, 
"Cissie." Mrs. Mellon was discovered on her 
knees, with her feet bare, white muslin drapery 
round her shoulders, and a black mask on her face. 
In the cabinet were found a false beard and other 
properties. At about the same time Mrs. Williams 
was exposed in Paris, by the Duke de Medina 
Pomar and others. The medium in this latter case 
was found masquerading, in more or less appro- 
priate dress, as the spirit of a man. 

In 1882, however, though the physical phenomena 
of Spiritualism were certainly less startling and 
less abundant than they had been some years 
previously, there seemed still no reason to doubt 
that there would be ample material for investiga- 
tion. Indeed Professor H. Sidgwick, in the course 
of his first Presidential address to the nascent 
Society, delivered at Willis's Rooms in July, 1882, 
after explaining that the Society would by prefer- 
ence turn its attention to physical phenomena 
occurring in private circles, thought himself just- 
ified in assuming the existence of a mass of evidence 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 83 

of this kind. Mr. Sidgwick went on to express 
the hope that the occurrence of such phenomena 
would be more rapidly and extensively communi- 
cated to the representatives of the Society for 
impartial investigation. That hope was not 
destined to be realised. In the fifteen years 
which have elapsed, whilst few opportunities have 
been afforded to the Society's representatives for 
continuous investigation of any sort, no positive 
results have been obtained worthy of record. All 
Spiritualist manifestations appear indeed to have 
become less frequent, not only in private circles 
but with professional mediums. The Spiritualist 
newspapers no longer teem with records of marvel- 
lous seances. There has been little to encourage 
the Society to investigate the performances of 
professional mediums. Two series of seances have, 
indeed, been held with Mr. Eglinton, and a few 
with Mrs. Jencken, but the results were inconclusive 
where they were not actually suggestive of fraud. 

The latest experiences of the S. P. R. in this 
direction can hardly be said to constitute an ex- 
ception. In 1893, the attention of the Society was 
called to the phenomena observed in the presence 
of an Italian peasant-woman, Eusapia Palladino. 
The phenomena had been attested by many persons 
of scientific distinction, including Professor Brof- 
ferio, M. Schiaparelli, Director of the Astronomical 
Observatory in Milan, Professor Lombroso, and 
Professor C. Richet. The two former, with other 
members of a Committee of Investigation which 



84 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

sat at Milan in 1892, had signed a report express- 
ing their conviction that some of the things wit- 
nessed could not be attributed to normal agency. 
Professor Richet, though attaching great weight 
to the phenomena which he had observed, ex- 
pressed his opinion that complete proof of abnormal 
agency was wanting. In particular, M. Richet 
held that the manner in which Eusapia's hands 
were held during the dark seances was suspicious. 
He writes : 

" During the experiments, Eusapia generally has the right 
and the left hand held differently : on one side her whole hand 
is firmly held ; on the other side, instead of having her hand 
held by the person next her, she merely places her hand on 
his, but touches his hand with all five fingers, so that he can 
feel quite distinctly whether it is the right or the left hand with 
which he is in contact. 

" This is what follows : at the moment when the manifest- 
ations are about to begin, the hand which is not being held, 
but which is lightly placed on the hand of the person on that 
side (for the sake of simplicity we will suppose that it is 
Eusapia's right hand, though it is in fact sometimes the right, 
sometimes the left), — the right hand, then, becomes very un- 
steady, and begins to move about so rapidly that it is impos- 
sible to follow its movements : it shifts about every moment, 
and for the mere fraction of a second it is not felt at all ; 
then it is felt again, and one could swear that it is the right 
hand." x 

In the summer of 1894 Professor Richet invited 
Professor Lodge, Mr. F. W. H. Myers, Dr. Ochoro- 

1 Annales des Sciences Psychiques, Jan. -Feb., 1893. See also a criticism 
of the articles in the Annales, by the present writer, in Proc, S. P. R. y 
vol. ix., pp. 218-225. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 85 

wicz, and one or two others, to join him in investi- 
gating the powers claimed by Eusapia Palladino. 
The phenomena observed, when Eusapia's hands 
and feet were believed to be secured, and other 
precautions had been taken to prevent physical in- 
tervention on her part, consisted mainly of the 
movements of articles of furniture at a certain 
distance from the circle ; the lifting of a heavy 
table from the ground ; the movement of smaller 
objects from one part of the room to another ; the 
sounding of notes on musical instruments ; and 
grasps and touches felt by the experimenters on 
various parts of their persons. The seances for the 
most part took place in a very subdued light, so 
that the proof of Eusapia's non-intervention rested 
mainly, though not entirely, on the secure holding 
of her hands. Nevertheless, the phenomena were 
so impressive that Professor Lodge and others ex- 
pressed the conviction that some of the things 
observed could not be accounted for by any known 
agency. 

When, however, accounts of these experiments 
and of the conclusions arrived at were printed in 
the Journal of the Society, Dr. Hodgson immedi- 
ately challenged the accuracy of the observations, 
mainly on the ground that it did not appear that 
Eusapia's hands had been held in such a way as to 
make fraud impossible. Finally, in the summer 
of 1895, another series of sittings was held with 
Eusapia in this country. Very early in the series 
suspicious movements on the medium's part were 



86 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

observed. Later, Dr. Hodgson himself joined the 
circle ; and it was conclusively shown that Eusapia 
was availing herself of the peculiar method of 
" holding," previously described by Professor 
Richet, to get one hand free, and then execute the 
movements observed. Briefly, her method is to 
begin by allowing one hand to be firmly held by 
the sitter on one side (say the left), and to let the 
fingers of the other, the right hand, rest on the 
hand of the sitter on the other side. Then, in the 
course of the rapid spasmodic movements referred 
to by Professor Richet, she approximates the hands 
of the sitters on either side of her, until they are 
so near together that one of Eusapia's hands (the 
left) will do duty for two — being grasped by one 
of the sitters' hands and resting its fingers on the 
hand of the other sitter. The desired " phenom- 
enon " is then brought about, and the right hand 
restored to its former position. Other devices of 
a similar kind were observed or inferred ; and 
probably there are yet others which have escaped 
detection. 

Dr. Hodgson's conclusion is that the whole of 
the phenomena produced in Eusapia's presence 
from first to last have been due to fraud. On the 
other side, it is urged that at some of the sittings 
held in the summer of 1894 the suspicious circum- 
stances observed in this country were not present ; 
that Eusapia's hands and feet were held in such a 
manner as to prevent trickery of the kind detected 
subsequently ; and that even with a hand or a foot 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. T. JR. 87 

free some of the feats recorded in 1894 were be- 
yond her physical powers. Moreover, immediately 
after she left England, a group of French experi- 
menters, who had been fully informed of the 
fraudulent performances detected in this country, 
obtained through Eusapia's mediumship phenomena 
which they regarded as beyond suspicion. 1 

But if, just when an organised and systematic 
investigation on a scale not inadequate to the 
importance of the subject was for the first time 
about to be made, the phenomena which were to 
be investigated unhappily ceased to occur, the 
Society has been able to accumulate evidence of 
another kind bearing upon the question of the 
supposed psychic force. 

Mrs. Sidgwick' s Experiences. 

In May, 1886, Mrs. Henry Sidgwick communi- 
cated to the Society the results of her personal 
investigations into the physical phenomena of 
Spiritualism. 2 In the period since 1874, when her 
experiments began, Mrs. Sidgwick here records, in 
addition to isolated seances on various occasions, 
several series of sittings more or less prolonged 
with eight different mediums. In one case the 

1 For an account of these later experiments see the Annales des Sciences 
Psychiques for Jan. and Feb., '96. From the account there given it would 
not appear that the experimenters had profited by the experiences of 
previous investigations. The seances were still held in a very subdued 
light; Eusapia's feet were "controlled" by being placed on the feet of 
the investigators, and her left hand remained in contact with, but not held 
by, the sitter on that side. 

2 Proc. S. P. P., vol. iv., pp. 45 et seqq. 



88 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

phenomena were indubitably attributable to fraud 
alone ; the performer being so unskilful that his 
movements, in spite of the partial darkness, could 
be followed without difficulty. In the other cases, 
the mediums were never indeed detected in the 
act of cheating — a result mainly due to the fact 
that Mrs. Sidgwick held herself bound by an im- 
plied understanding with the medium not to seize 
the spirit form or otherwise violate the conditions 
imposed. But the phenomena observed were at 
best inconclusive, and most commonly indicated 
fraud of a sufficiently obvious kind. For when, in 
the course of the earlier seances, the conditions 
were such as to admit of phenomena being pro- 
duced fraudulently, phenomena occurred. When, 
with riper experience, additional precautions were 
taken to make fraud impossible, the phenomena 
either ceased altogether, or occurred only during a 
temporary relaxation of the precautions. 

Thus, at the seances with Mrs. Jencken the 
rappings ceased when her feet were placed in Mrs. 
Sidgwick's lap ; or when she was clasped round the 
knees. Mrs. Eva Fay was able to move various 
objects when her hands were tied behind her back 
in a method prescribed by herself. When a 
simpler and more secure fastening had been 
adopted, the other conditions remaining unaltered, 
nothing occurred. At some seances with Williams, 

" only one manifestation of any importance took place, and 
that was the transference of a chimney ornament from the 
mantelpiece to the table, which happened at the very moment 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 89 

when Mr. Sidgwick jumped up to meet a late arriving member 
of the circle, and in doing so let go of the medium's hand, so 
that the solitary phenomenon coincided with a solitary oppor- 
tunity for performing it by natural means." 1 

But the most important series of experiments 
was held with Miss Wood and Miss Fairlamb 
(Mrs. Mellon), at first with both mediums together 
and later with each separately. In the course of 
this prolonged series many singular manifestations 
occurred ; but in every such case some flaw in the 
precautions taken was discovered which rendered 
it physically possible for the results to have been 
produced by normal means. Thus on one occasion 
when Miss Fairlamb (this time alone) had been 
fastened in the " cabinet " by leather straps round 
waist and ankles, an undoubtedly material figure 
came to the doorway and allowed itself to be 
handled. But an inspection after the seance 
shewed that the waist fastening was insecure, and 
experiment proved that the figure had advanced 
into the room so far, and no farther, as a woman 
tied by the ankle alone could have reached. On 
another occasion, Miss Fairlamb was placed in a 
hammock suspended in the cabinet, and attached 
to a spring balance. Nothing noteworthy occurred 
until one night, when, after the seance had begun, 
Miss Wood went for a few minutes into the cabi- 
net "to give power." Her mission proved so suc- 
cessful that on her return to the circle a human 
form emerged from the cabinet, and gave satisfact- 

1 Loc. cit., p. 56. 



90 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAI RESEARCH. 

ory proof of its materiality. The weight in the 
hammock meanwhile went down to 60 lbs. Here, 
indeed, — since the material form seen was too far 
from the hammock to have been able to affect its 
weight, and there was nothing in the cabinet which 
could have been placed in the hammock, — seemed 
clear proof of that manifestation referred to by 
Spiritualists as the " materialisation " of a spirit 
form by withdrawing substance from the body of 
the medium. Unfortunately Mrs. Sidgwick records 

" that after the seance I asked leave to search Miss Fairlamb. 
This she sharply and decidedly declined. She was reminded 
that she had agreed to be searched, but she said that was 
before not after the seance. This refusal produced an un- 
favourable impression on us, and left the evidence at best 
inconclusive. It was not impossible, though rather remark- 
able, that the amount of weight required should have been 
brought in to the cabinet by Miss Wood when she went in 
" to give power," and the idea that extra weight had been car- 
ried by the girls was rather supported by the fact that they 
had that day come in a cab instead of walking, as I believe 
they usually did." 1 

In another series of seances Miss Wood was 
placed, head and all, in a long bag of white net, 
the end of the bag being brought outside the cabi- 
net and there secured. The record runs : " We 
held five seances in this way with no result, and 
then the 'spirits,' through Miss Wood, told us to 
give up that test." In the later seances, when less 
stringent ; tests were employed, the phenomena 
reappeared. 

1 Loc. cit., p. 52. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 9 1 

Mrs. Sidgwick's paper is valuable as containing 
the record of a long series of accurate observations, 
by an observer so impartial that after twelve years 
of ill success she was able, in 1886, to write : " I at 
present think it more probable than not that such 
things [the physical phenomena of Spiritualism} 
occasionally occur." 1 

Reichenbacti s Phenomena. 

Baron Karl von Reichenbach, in the last genera- 
tion, described in great detail phenomena observed 
by him in certain subjects whom he called sensi- 
tives. These phenomena have been generally ac- 
cepted by Spiritualists, many of whom have been 
able to confirm Reichenbach's observations from 
their own experience. The things attested are, 
chiefly, luminous emanations from magnets, crys- 
tals, the human body, and other substances ; and 
anomalous sensations of temperature, bodily pain, 
and various nervous symptoms, produced by the 
contact or neighbourhood of magnets, certain 
metals, and crystalline bodies. 

The subject seemed of sufficient importance to- 
justify the Society in its early days in appointing a 
Committee for investigation. For this purpose a 
powerful electro-magnet, excited by the current 
from eight large (10- by 6-inch plates) Smee cells, 
led through a commutator, was set up in a dark 
room. Strict precautions were taken to secure 
absolute darkness in the room set apart for the ex- 

1 Proc. S. P. R. , vol. iv. , p. 74. 



92 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

periments. After careful and repeated trials on 
the various members of the Committee, and on 
forty-five other subjects of both sexes, and of ages 
between sixteen and sixty, only three persons pro- 
fessed to see luminous appearances from the elec- 
tro-magnet. This in itself is a very meagre result 
compared with the wealth of observations which 
Reichenbach claims to have obtained. But even 
the testimony of these three witnesses is of little 
value as confirming Reichenbach's results. There 
is no reason indeed to doubt the good faith of 
the observers. But there was no proof that the 
luminous appearances which they saw were in any 
sense objective ; nor is it easy to see how such 
proof could be obtained. It is true that they pro- 
fessed themselves ignorant whether the current 
was turned on or not. But indications of the 
switching on or off might have been received un- 
consciously, either from the " magnetic tick " of the 
iron core, or from the faint click of the commu- 
tator in the adjoining room ; or, if we have to 
admit a new agency, by thought-transference from 
the minds of the experimenters. On the whole, 
the results of the Committee's researches indicate 
that the phenomena described by Reichenbach were 
purely subjective ; that they were in fact faint hal- 
lucinations, due in most cases, it is probable, to 
direct verbal suggestion. 

Spirit Photography. 
Spirit photographs have frequently been adduced 
as convincing evidence of supernormal agency. In 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 93 

1 89 1, in reply to a challenge from Mr. Alfred Rus- 
sel Wallace, Mrs. H. Sidgwick published the results 
of a critical examination into the evidence for their 
production. 1 In that paper Mrs. Sidgwick shows 
that of the four best-known professional spirit photo- 
graphers, three — Mumler, Hudson, and Buguet — 
had been convicted of producing such photographs 
fraudulently ; and that many of the circumstances 
attending the production of spirit photographs by 
the fourth — Parkes — were such as strongly to 
suggest fraud. The exposure of Buguet was very 
complete. Prosecuted by the French Government 
in 1875, ne admitted that all his spirit photo- 
graphs were fraudulent, and produced in court a 
box of dummy figures which represented the spirits. 
These figures, when suitably draped, were photo- 
graphed on the plate by double exposure. 2 Mrs. 
Sidgwick further shows that much of the evidence 
forthcoming from private sources lay under some 
suspicion of fraud, and was in any case quite insuf- 
ficient to justify the conclusions drawn from it by 
Spiritualists. 

Since, therefore, fraud has been repeatedly detect- 
ed in connection with so-called spirit photography ; 
and since it would be reasonable to infer, from the 
complicated nature of photographic processes, and 
the opportunities offered at each stage for trickery, 
that fraud would in many more cases escape detec- 
tion, the proof of the genuineness of a spirit photo- 

1 Proc. S. P. R., vol. vii., pp. 268-289. 

2 Proces des Spirites, par Mme. Leymarie. Paris, 1875. 



94 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

graph must in the last resort be sought in internal 
evidence. It can be further shown, however, that 
the vaunted "recognition" of spirit photographs 
affords by no means a satisfactory proof of their genu- 
ineness. The witnesses see in fact what they wish 
or expect to see. Thus, one lady, after a quarter 
of an hour s examination, recognised in a photo- 
graph the likeness of her mother-in-law. 1 Frequently 
the photographs required, not only prolonged scru- 
tiny and a little touching up, but a family consulta- 
tion, before the desired image could be "recognised." 
Most of such spirit photographs as I have seen 
contain, indeed, little more than the cloudy suggest- 
ion of a face, the details to be filled in by each 
witness at his pleasure. Sometimes, no doubt, as 
in a photograph by Buguet which lies before me as 
I write, the " spirit " has been truly focused, and 
the features are clearly marked. But in this particu- 
lar case, unfortunately, the recognition is too com- 
plete. On the one hand, it was claimed as the likeness 
of a M. Ed. Poiret, dead some twelve years pre- 
viously ; on the other, as the pictureof M. Raymond's 

father-in-law, " still alive at D , and much 

annoyed at being sold about as a spirit before his 
time." A photograph by Mumler, 2 in which Mrs. 
Lincoln was the sitter, shows a very faint, but 
recognisable likeness of the late President in the 
background. But clearly, if Mumler had found out 
who his sitter was, there w r ould have been little 
difficulty in producing a photograph of Abraham 

1 Human Nature, 1875, P- 2 °- 2 Human Nature, 1874, P« ^"h- 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 95 

Lincoln. In another well-known case, Mr. Stainton 
Moses, when in bed in London, was photographed 
by Buguet in Paris. 1 The spirit face on the plate 
is faint but fairly recognisable. But Buguet had 
photographed Stainton Moses in the previous July, 
and could have had no difficulty in reproducing his 
likeness on the plate. The evidential value of the 
case rests, therefore, almost entirely on the assump- 
tion of Buguet's ignorance of the particular form 
desired. It may be added that, as is the case with 
other phenomena, no satisfactory spirit photographs 
appear-to have been produced since 1882, or, indeed, 
for some years previously. A small circle of inves- 
tigators did, indeed, in 1894-95 hold a series of 
seances for the purpose of obtaining spirit photo- 
graphs with Duguid, sometime the chosen instru- 
ment for the revelations of Hafed, Prince of Persia. 
But the results obtained were not such as to encour- 
age further investigation in this direction. 

Slate Writing. 

The manifestation of direct spirit-writing on slates 
first came into prominence in this country in 1876, 
through the mediumship of " Dr." Slade. It is true 
that Slade was very early in his career detected in 
the act of cheating by Professor Lankester ; but the 
Spiritualists had no difficulty in believing Slade's 
own account of the matter ; and slate writing by 
spirits remained one of the stock marvels of medium- 
ship. A seance with Slade in the summer of 1876 

1 Human Nature, 1875, p. 97, and Proc. S. P. R., vol. vii., p. 287. 



g6 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

impressed me at the time with the conviction that 
the writing was produced by some abnormal agency. 
Even when fuller experience had taught me to dis- 
trust mediumistic marvels generally, the things 
witnessed with Sladefor long remained inexplicable. 
In the same year, Mrs. Henry Sidgwick had a series 
of about ten sittings with Slade, and in her contem- 
porary report she records her opinion "that the 
phenomena are due to trickery." x Later, this form 
of manifestation became a common one in the 
mediumship of W. Eglinton. Many striking ac- 
counts appeared in the Spiritualist journals of 
seances with this medium. Thus in Light of 
October 16, 1886, the testimony of about a hundred 
observers, amongst them many persons of intellect- 
ual distinction, is quoted as endorsing the genuine- 
ness of the phenomena. The things reported, both 
of Slade and Eglinton, included writing on slates 
watched by the sitters and sometimes supplied by 
them ; answers to questions written down and not 
shown to the medium ; answers to mental questions : 
the receipt of long communications relevant to the 
conversation of the moment ; and, occasionally, the 
reproduction of words from the given page of a 
book chosen by the sitter. The sittings took place 
in broad daylight ; and many of the witnesses re- 
ported that they were permitted to bring their own 
slates, to mark the slate used, to tie or even lock 
the double slates, to hold them above the table, and 
to take other necessary precautions against fraud. 

1 Proc. S. P. R. , vol. iv, p. 56. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. g? 

Amongst those who had sittings with Eglinton, 
in 1884, were two members of the S. P. R., Dr. R. 
Hodgson and the late Mr. S. J. Davey. The effect 
produced on the former was unfavourable ; but Mr. 
Davey was very soon convinced of the genuine 
character of the phenomena, and in contemporary 
reports of seances, 1 he writes that/' to those persons 
who have given any time at all to the study of psycho- 
logical subjects, the idea of trickery or jugglery in 
slate-writing communications is quite out of the 
question " ; and again, speaking of the precautions 
used, " not to test Mr. Eglinton's honesty ( for of 
that all who know him are assured)." In the course 
of the following year, a number of persons, members 
of the Society and others, had sittings with Eglin- 
ton, and sent reports to the Society. Most of the 
witnesses were completely baffled by what they saw 
and some expressed their conviction that the phe- 
nomena could not be due to trickery. Their reports 
were printed in the Journal for June, 1886, with a 
critical comment by Mrs. Sidgwick, who at the same 
time took occasion to point out that Eglinton had 
in at least two instances been detected in the fraudu- 
lent production of other Spiritualistic marvels. 

In the Journal for August of the same year 
there appeared a paper by Mr. Angelo J. Lewis 
("Professor Hoffmann"), a well-known amateur 
conjurer, criticising the reports in detail, and point- 
ing out some of the numerous suspicious features 

1 Light July 12 and October 25, 1884, quoted in Journal, S. P. R. t 
1886, pp. 436, 437. 



98 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

in the seances and the opportunities for jugglery 
afforded. Later, Professor Carvill Lewis was able, 
by feigning to divert his attention at the critical 
moment, to watch Eglinton's movements in the act 
of writing the " Spirit messages" : and Dr. Hodg- 
son and Mr. F. G. Netherclift, the well-known 
expert, shewed by a detailed comparison that the 
"Spirit messages" were produced by the same 
hand as Eglinton's ordinary writing. Dr. Hodg- 
son further undertook an exhaustive analysis of 
the reports in the Journal. He shewed that the 
reports of the same sittings by different observers 
revealed almost invariably important discrepancies. 
Incidents recorded by one witness would be re- 
ported by another as occurring at a different time, 
or omitted altogether. There was, further, evi- 
dence that many incidents had passed from the 
recollection of both sitters before the conclusion of 
the seance. Dr. Hodgson found the same liability 
to error in himself, but, recognising it, was able to 
guard against its consequences. He mentions in- 
cidentally that he spent fourteen hours in writing 
out his notes of a single slate-writing seance. 
Probably most of the accounts which he criticised 
were written in less than a tenth of the time. In 
his own words : 

" The source of error which I desire in particular to press 
upon the reader's notice is the perishability, the exceeding 
transience, the fading feebleness, the evanescence beyond 
recall, of certain impressions which nevertheless did enter the 
domain of consciousness, and did in their due place form part 
of the stream of impetuous waking thought. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 99 

" It is, moreover, not simply and merely that many events, 
which did obtain at the sitting some share of perception, thus 
lapse completely from the realm of ordinary recollection. 
The consequence may indeed be that we meet with a blank 
or a chaos in traversing the particular field of remembrance 
from which the events have lapsed ; but this will often be 
filled with some conjectured events which rapidly become at- 
tached to the adjacent parts, and form, in conjunction with 
them, a consolidated but fallacious fragment in memory. On 
the other hand, the consequence may be that the edges of the 
lacuna close up — events originally separated by a considerable 
interval are now reme7nbered vividly in immediate sjuxtaposi- 
tion, and there is no trace of the piecing." 1 

Dr. Hodgson thus distinguishes four main kinds 
of error in records of this kind — viz. : omission, 
interpolation, transposition, and substitution. It 
is hardly necessary to point out that the incident 
omitted or misrepresented contained, as a rule, the 
key to the trick. It is due to Eglinton's reputation 
as a conjurer to state that he generally succeeded 
in inducing the witnesses to describe the " phe- 
nomenon/' not as it really happened, but as he 
wished it to appear to have happened. Thus, to 
give only a few instances, it was proved that Eg- 
linton habitually found an occasion to leave the 
room during his seances : but these absences are 
very rarely reported. He habitually dropt the 
slate or his handkerchief ; and the observer habit- 
ually omitted to record so insignificant an accident. 
If he answered a question written on a slate care- 
fully concealed from him, it was generally after a 
considerable interval, utilised for surreptitiously 

1 S. P. R., vol. iv., p. 386-7. 



IOO STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

reading the question ; but the sitter frequently 
describes the question and answer as occurring in 
close juxtaposition. If he produced a Greek sen- 
tence " at the request of the sitter," it was a request 
led up to by Eglinton's own reference to former 
phenomena of the kind — a reference so casual that 
it seemed impertinent to take note of it. Or if the 
sitter chose a book from Eglinton's shelves, and 
his first choice, at Eglinton's suggestion, was aban- 
doned, the trivial incident made little impression 
on a memory already surfeited with marvels. 

But after all, Dr. Hodgson's criticisms rested 
necessarily, from the imperfection of the records, 
to a great extent upon inference. It was always 
open to the Spiritualists to say — and they did say 
— that however inaccurate and misleading were the 
records examined by Dr. Hodgson, they had them- 
selves witnessed phenomena with Eglinton at which 
no such opportunities for fraud had occurred. 
There remained, therefore, one further step in the 
demonstration : and this fortunately was supplied. 
Mr. S. J. Davey — already referred to as an enthu- 
siastic witness in 1884 to Eglinton's honesty and 
supernormal powers — saw reason in 1885 to sus- 
pect trickery. Following up the clue obtained, 
he succeeded with practice in imitating by mere 
sleight of hand, with the aid of some simple ap- 
paratus, most of the phenomena which he had 
witnessed with Eglinton. He then resolved to 
co-operate with the Society in unmasking the im- 
posture. The plan adopted was as follows. Mr. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 101 

Davey assumed, for convenience, a professional 
name — David Clifford ; and various persons, intro- 
duced to him as to one who possessed remarkable 
powers of a mysterious kind, were allowed to wit- 
ness his feats, on condition that they would subse- 
sequently write out a full account of what they 
believed themselves to have observed. Mr. Davey, 
of course, worked under less favourable conditions 
than Eglinton. Most persons who had sittings 
with the latter probably half believed in the myste- 
rious powers which he claimed, and even a slight 
measure of belief was sufficient to intoxicate the 
senses and bewilder the judgment. It was difficult 
to maintain the same occult atmosphere about Mr. 
Davey and his surroundings ; and many of his sit- 
ters guessed or knew that he was merely a conjurer. 
Nevertheless the effect produced was such that a 
well-known professional conjurer expressed his 
complete inability to explain the results by trick- 
ery ; that no one of his sitters ever detected his 
modus operandi ; that most were completely baffled, 
or took refuge in the supposition of a new form of 
electricity, or "a powerful magnetic force used in 
double manner ; ist, a force of attraction, and 
2d, that of repulsion " ; and that more than one 
Spiritualist ascribed the phenomena to occult 
agency, and regarded — perhaps still regard — Mr. 
Davey as a renegade medium. 1 

In the early summer of 1886, Mr. Davey called 

1 See letter from Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace, Journal, S. P. R. , March, 
1891. 



102 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

on me one evening and volunteered to give a 
seance to my brother, Mr. A. Podmore. The fol- 
lowing is his account of what happened — written 
unfortunately a few weeks after the occurrence. It is 
important to remember that Mr. A. Podmore was per- 
sonally acquainted with Mr. Davey, and knew that 
he was going to witness a conjuring performance. 

Statement of Mr. Austin Podmore. 

"July, 1886. 

" A few weeks ago Mr. D. gave me a seance, and to the best 
of my recollection the following was the result. Mr. D. gave 
me an ordinary school slate, which I held at one end, he at the 
other, with our left hands : he then produced a double slate, 
hinged and locked. Without removing my left hand I un- 
locked the slate, and at Mr. D.'s direction, placed three small 
pieces of chalk — red, green, and grey — inside : I then relocked 
the slate, placed the key in my pocket, and the slate on the 
table in such a position that I could easily watch both the slate 
in my left hand, and the other on the table. After some few 
minutes, during which, to the best of my belief, I was atten- 
tively regarding both slates, Mr. D. whisked the first away, and 
showed me on the reverse a message written to myself. Almost 
immediately afterwards he asked me to unlock the second 
slate, and on doing so I found, to my intense astonishment, 
another message written on both the insides of the slate — the 
lines in alternate colours, and the chalks apparently much 
worn by usage. 

" My brother tells me that there was an interval of some two' 
or three minutes during which my attention was called away, 
but I can only believe it on his word." 1 

Mr. Davey allowed me to be present during the 
seance, and to see how it was done. What hap- 
pened was this. After the production of the writ- 

1 S. P. R., iv., p. 416. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 103 

ing on the single slate, held by Mr. A. Podmore's 
left hand, his one business in life was to watch the 
locked slate on the table. It will be seen from his 
account that he believed himself faithfully to have 
performed his task. What he actually did was to 
fix his eyes on Mr. Davey's face, and listen absorbed 
to the conjurer's patter. Mr. Davey the while put 
a duster over the locked slate, removed it to the 
far end of the room, brought back another locked 
slate, previously prepared, and placed it under cover 
of the duster on the table in front of Mr. A. Pod- 
more. Then, and not till then, the stream of talk 
ceased, and my brother's attention became again 
concentrated on the slate, from which the sound of 
the spirit-writing was now heard to proceed. 
Another account runs as follows : 

Statement of Miss Stidolph. 

" I have much pleasure in recording my recollections of a 
seance with Mr. S. J. Davey. His powers are certainly mar- 
vellous, and while I have not the very smallest belief in 
1 Spiritualism ' or * mediums ' of any kind, believing the things 
so called to be gross deceptions, I was amazed at my friend's 
scientific skill. Apparently he has no appliances. I was 
seated with him at a small table when he gave me the fol- 
lowing astounding evidence of his powers. He gave into my 
hands a slate which, when locked, looks like an ordinary box. 
This box I opened, washed the slate, locked it, and took the 
key ; for some minutes we sat, he with one hand on mine, his 
other hand on the table. Presently a faint scratching was 
heard, and continued some little time ; when it ceased Mr. 
Davey unlocked the slate, and lo ! it was covered with clear, 
distinct writing — a letter addressed to myself, and stating if I 
would wait a little while the writer would go to the Cape and 



104 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

bring me news of my brother. Then I again washed the slate ; 
again it was locked, and again I kept the key. Mr. Davey 
then asked me to take any volume I liked from the library, to 
look at a page and remember the number of it. This I did, 
and again we sat as before. In a few moments the slate was 
unlocked, when on it was written, not only the number of the 
page I had thought of, but some of the words which were on 
the self-same page, and these not ordinary words, but abstruse 
words, as the book I selected was a learned one. This I con- 
sidered a most marvellous feat, and utterly incomprehensible. 
That the scientific researches of my friend will lead to most 
important results I have no doubt. His aim is to expose de- 
ception, and if this object be attained he will benefit society 
and throw light on a subject which has hitherto been consid- 
ered to belong exclusively to the powers of darkness. 

" E. Stidolph. 

" I would mention that the shelves from which I took the 
book contained hundreds of volumes, and Mr. Davey had no 
idea which I had selected as he closed his eyes and went to 
the extreme end of the room. E. S. 

" November 25, 1886." l 

But time would fail to tell of all the marvels per- 
formed by Mr. Davey's agency and attested by 
educated and intelligent eye-witnesses. He pro- 
duced a long message in Japanese for a Japanese 
marquis ; he made — or seemed to make — pieces of 
chalk under a glass describe geometrical figures at 
the unexpressed wish of the sitter ; he made a tum- 
bler walk across the table in full light ; he wrote 
messages in double slates securely sealed and 
screwed together ; he materialised in strong light 
a woman's head, which floated in the air and then 
dematerialised ; and the half-length figure of a 

1 Ibid., p. 418. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 105 

bearded man, in a turban, reading a book, who 
bowed to the circle " and finally disappeared through 
the ceiling with a scraping noise." 

Disinterested Fraud. 

In the case of phenomena produced through the 
agency of professional mediums the moral presump- 
tion against fraud, whatever weight may have origin- 
ally attached to it, is clearly altogether invalidated 
on a historical retrospect. For any one conversant 
with the damning record of Spiritualist exposures to 
suggest, where fraud was physically possible, any 
other explanation for a phenomenon observed in 
the presence of such persons as Eglinton or Slade 
would manifestly be preposterous. But this moral 
presumption still had considerable weight in cases 
where the more obvious motives to fraud cannot be 
supposed to have operated. It was this considera- 
tion mainly which induced the committee on theo- 
sophical phenomena to take a favourable view of 
the evidence laid before them in England. 1 Colonel 
Olcott and some of the Hindoos concerned, who 
must have been implicated in the trick — if trick 
there were — were educated men, without any ob- 
vious advantage to gain from fraud. We now know 
that some of these persons had lent themselves to 
carrying on the systematic deception initiated by 
Madame Blavatsky. But it is not easy to frame an 
intelligible conception of their conduct on ordinary 

1 See below Chapter VI. 



106 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

motives. Madame Blavatsky herself remains, not- 
withstanding recent revelations, very much of an 
enigma. She began life, it is true, as an adventur- 
ess ; and must have obtained at least bread and 
cheese by her theosophical ventures. But talents 
such as hers would almost unquestionably have 
commanded a higher market value in some less 
precarious profession. It is impossible to doubt 
that for her, at any rate, there was an intellectual 
satisfaction to be derived from fooling the world,, 
or that not inconsiderable part of the world which 
came under her influence. She was an artist in 
chicanery ; a trickster not for gain only, but for 
glory. And researches in the squalid annals of 
spiritualism have brought to light other cases where 
fraud was practised without the attraction of pe- 
cuniary or any obvious social advantage. Thus the 
Seybert Commission mentions a case in which "an 
unprofessional medium, a young gentleman of re- 
puted honour and veracity," was in the habit of 
giving seances of the ordinary type, regularly week 
after week, to members of his family and a few 
privileged friends. The medium would sit in semi- 
darkness behind a curtain with his hands bound. 
He would then be controlled by Indian spirits and 
utter guttural whoops and Indian cries. Various 
musical instruments would be played ; and two 
drumsticks would make their appearance above the 
curtain brilliantly illuminated. At the seance re- 
corded by the Commission, some printer's ink, 
which had been secretly placed on one of the drum- 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. IOJ 

sticks, was found at the end of the seance dissemi- 
nated over the " medium's" hands. 1 

Professor Sidgwick has put on record another 
case of disinterested deception carried on system- 
atically for a considerable period. Mr. Z., the 
" medium" in this case, was a professional man of 
good social position, and an author of various 
books and articles dealing with a department of 
learned research to which he devoted much of his 
leisure. In this gentleman's presence, whilst his 
hand touched the top only, a table would be lifted 
from the floor, suspended, or carried through the 
air. Mr. Z. succeeded in persuading a circle of 
friends that the phenomena were not due to me- 
chanical agency : and allowed Professor and Mrs. 
Sidgwick to observe them on that understanding, 
whilst repeatedly evading the application of tests 
which would have made trickery out of the ques- 
tion. On one occasion, indeed, by an ingenious 
misrepresentation, he induced a lady to take his 
place and carry on the trick. It was not until she 
learnt that Mr. Z. had signed a declaration that the 
phenomena had "not been produced by normal 
means," that this lady felt herself bound to com- 
municate what she knew. It then appeared that 
the movements had been produced by means of 
two laths covered with black cloth, which Mr. Z. 
concealed up his sleeves. Motive adequate for so 
deliberate a deception it is hard to discover. Most 
amateur conjurers, no doubt, would refuse to reveal 

1 Report of the Seybert Commission, pp. 122, 123. 



108 STUDIES IA T PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

an ingenious trick; many would be willing to go 
some length in baffling a pertinacious inquirer, 
even perhaps to the extent of leading him, tacitly, 
or by verbal misrepresentation, to believe that the 
trick was no trick, but the result of abnormal 
powers. But there are probably few educated 
men, with a character to lose, who would be will- 
ing to risk an express, above all a written, declara- 
tion to that effect. 1 

With children and with many imperfectly edu- 
cated persons, no doubt, such deception is not un- 
common. We have come across more than one 
example of systematic fraud of this kind. In a 
case investigated by one of our members some 
years since, two children carried on a series of 
seances for some weeks in the family circle. A 
prominent feature of their seances was the produc- 
tion of writing, through the hand of one of the 
children, imitating the chirography of various de- 
ceased relatives ; imitating also their style, and 
discussing various family events. The information 
necessary for producing these writings was derived 
by the children from letters and other documents 
obtained, sometimes, from locked drawers and desks. 
Other ingenious and even startling manifestations 
occurred, for which the complete absence of sus- 
picion on the part of parents and friends afforded 
abundant opportunity. The whole was ultimately 
shown to be due to trickery. In the next chapter 
we shall see reason to believe that the so-called 

1 Journal, S. P. P., July, 1894. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. IO9 

Poltergeist cases — ringing of bells and mysterious 
movements of furniture — are due to trickery on the 
part of the persons concerned, generally girls or 
young children. 

Moreover, the fuller knowledge gained in recent 
years of subconscious mental activities affords 
ground for thinking that deception of this kind 
may, in the beginning at any rate, be only semi- 
conscious. The line between what is conscious 
and what is not-so-conscious is at all times hard to 
draw ; since no one but the patient, and not always 
the patient himself, is in a position to speak with 
authority. It is not unlikely that seemingly motive- 
less deception of the kind met with in these inves- 
tigations may occasionally be the accompaniment 
of some morbid dissociation of consciousness, such 
as seems to occur in certain hysterical patients. 
The automatic subject frequently exhibits in his 
utterances and actions signs of a disingenuousness 
foreign to his normal self. In considering the 
question, therefore, whether the phenomena occur- 
ring in the presence of a certain person are due to 
trickery or to " psychic force," we should not be 
justified in pressing too far the argument drawn 
from the improbability of wilful deception. We 
are bound to assume abnormality somewhere, and 
of the two, it may be easier to suppose the medium 
abnormally dishonest, than to credit him with ab- 
normal " psychic " powers. 



IIO STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Some General Propositions. 

At this point, before an attempt is made to esti- 
mate critically the value of the testimony for super- 
normal physical phenomena set forth in the pre- 
ceding chapter, it will be convenient to formulate 
some propositions suggested by a general survey 
of the evidence, and by the investigations of the 
Society for Psychical Research in particular. 

(i) The conditions under which the phenomena 
generally occur — conditions for the most part sug- 
gested, and continually enforced by the medium — are 
such as to facilitate fraud, and to render its detection 
difficult. 

Amongst these conditions may be mentioned the 
darkness or subdued light in which the seance is 
generally held ; the holding of hands by the circle 
— a condition calculated to act as an effective check 
on independent investigation ; the singing and 
other devices to distract the sitter's attention ; the 
twitchings and convulsive movements of the me- 
dium's person ; and the constantly repeated injunc- 
tion not to concentrate attention on the phenomena 
desired. Many other suspicious circumstances will 
occur to those familiar with the subject. 

(2) Almost all the phenomena are known to have 
been produced under similar conditions by mechanical 
means. Some of the manifestations witnessed in 
the presence of Home — levitation, elongation, and 
the handling of hot substances — must apparently 
be excepted from this generalisation. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. K. Ill 

(3) Almost every professional medium has been 
detected in producing results by trickery. This 
proposition applies to Miss Cook, Mrs. Fay, and 
other mediums with whom Mr. Crookes experi- 
mented. But Home, again, forms an apparent 
exception. I am not aware that clear proof of 
imposture was ever brought forward against him. 

(4) There are several cases on record in which 
private persons, with no obvious pecuniary or social 
advantage to secure, have been detected in trickery. 

(5) The condition of emotional excitement in 
which investigators have for the most part ap- 
proached the subject, and the antecedent bias pro- 
duced by reports of the marvellous, are calculated 
seriously to interfere with calm and dispassionate 
observation. 

It is evident from a perusal of their works that 
the observations of Hare and Zollner, to take two 
of the most prominent instances, are vitiated from 
this cause. But there can be little doubt that it 
has operated in many other cases where its effects 
are less obvious. 1 

(6) It has been shown that very few persons are 
capable of exercising the continuous attention neces- 
sary to detect a conjuring trick. 

This is a faculty not demanded, and therefore 
not exercised, in the affairs of ordinary life, or even 
in the investigations of the laboratory. It follows 
that, as Mrs. Sidgwick and Dr. Hodgson have 

1 See Dr. Hodgson's remarks on this point, S. P. R., vol. iv., pp. 389 
and 397. 



112 ST UDIE S IN PS Y CHIC A L RE SEA R CH. 

shown, most persons are not merely deficient in 
this power of continuous observation, but are quite 
unconscious of their own deficiency, and are prone 
to fill up the gaps in their knowledge by conjectu- 
ral additions. Now it is on this proneness to un- 
conscious omissions and interpolations that the 
conjurer relies for his effects. 

(7) The phenomena upon which Spiritualists rely 
are such as to require the exercise of continuous ob- 
servation ; and experiments designed to dispense 
with the necessity for such observation have invari- 
ably failed. 

Some proofs of this statement have been already 
given. Thus the test of interlacing two solid rings 
cut out of different woods ; of tying a knot in a 
ring of bladder ; and of converting tartaric into 
racemic acid, were all evaded by Slade. Knots 
were indeed tied in a sealed cord, and coins ab- 
stracted from a closed box, but only after oppor- 
tunity for substitution had been afforded. Securely 
fastened slates, and hermetically sealed glass tubes 
with tablets and pencil enclosed, have been repeat- 
edly left for experiment with Eglinton, but without 
results, except of an equivocal kind. Mr. Crookes 
does, indeed, refer to the movement of " a pendu- 
lum enclosed in a glass case firmly cemented to the 
wall," 1 but he gives no details of the incident ; and 
the experiments which he describes in detail, how- 

1 Researches, p. 90. Mr. Crookes has explained to me verbally that this 
experiment, undertaken at Home's suggestion, took place when Mr. 
Crookes was the sole observer, and that the movements of the pendulum 
were not automatically recorded. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. II3 

ever well planned in other respects, were scarcely 
such as to dispense with the necessity for continu- 
ous observation. 

(8) Abnormal substances of various kinds are 
alleged to have been seen by ntimerous observers, but 
investigation has never revealed anything abnormal. 
Pieces of drapery have frequently been clipped 
from spirit robes, but the fragment has always 
proved to be of a texture such as the looms of 
Manchester could produce, and has occasionally 
been found to match pieces of muslin found in the 
medium's portmanteau. We hear, indeed, of a 
curious substance which was observed to exude 
from the ends of a medium's fingers, in the pres- 
ence of a small committee, containing two doctors. 
This substance, when analysed, was found to con- 
sist mainly of albuminous matter, with phosphates 
of lime and ammonia, and an amorphous pigment. 
But the observation appears never to have been 
repeated, and we have no means of testing the ac- 
curacy of the report, quoted from an American 
newspaper. 1 It is extraordinary to note how ex- 
perimenters in this field have persistently neglected 
their chances. Dr. Speer, though he was careful 
to note the height of the barometer and other at- 
mospheric conditions at Mr. Moses' seances, omits 
to mention whether he analysed the scent so liber- 
ally showered down, some of which he preserved 
in a wine-glass. Mr. Crookes states that he has 
experienced at a seance intense cold, comparable 

1 See Spiritualist, May, 1879, p. 246. 



114 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

to that felt by the hand in approaching frozen mer- 
cury, but he gives no thermometric readings. 1 He 
describes a solid, self-luminous body, as large as a 
turkey's ^gg, which floated about the room and 
knocked on the table, 2 and materialised hands 
which seemed to resolve themselves into vapour in 
his grasp, 3 and he spent many evenings in the com- 
pany of " Katie's" spirit form. But no opportuni- 
ties, it would seem, were afforded for examining 
even a fragment of " Katie's " garments, 4 or for 
dissecting an imperfectly materialised hand, fading 
into a cloud at the wrist ; or for subjecting to 
chemical and spectroscopic analysis that solid, self- 
luminous body. 

(9) The marvels recorded imply not one new 
force but many. This is a point which has not, I 
think, been sufficiently considered by the advocates 
of a psychic force. But it is obvious, if the analo- 
gies with the known physical forces are preserved 
at all, that it could hardly be one and the same 
force which should carry Mr. Home through the 
air, cause his body to be elongated, enable him with 
impunity to carry hot coals in his hand, extemporise 
material luminous bodies and human hands, remove 
coins from a closed box, and tie knots in an endless 
cord. Not even space of n dimensions will plausi- 
bly account for all these manifestations. But 

1 Researches, p. 86. 
>Ib., p. 91. 
z lb. , p. 92. 

4 Mr. Crookes informs me that pieces were occasionally cut from " Katie's " 
dress and proved to be of quite commonplace material. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 1 1 5 

clearly, if we have to admit several new modes of 
energy, the antecedent improbabilities are enor- 
mously increased. 

Examination of the evidence given in Chapter III. 

If, now, we take the evidence set forth in the 
preceding chapter, and review it in the light 
of recent researches, we must, I think, admit that 
the value of such experiments as those of de Gas- 
parin, Hare, and the Committee of the Dialectical 
Society is seriously weakened, if not altogether 
destroyed. There are too many unknown elements 
in each case for us to be satisfied that fraud — even 
aimless and disinterested fraud — was not a probable 
explanation. De Gasparin's circle included serv- 
ants and children ; we are told little or nothing 
about Dr. Hare's assistants ; whilst the " social 
position " of the anonymous members of the Dia- 
lectical Society's Committee can hardly be accepted 
as a guarantee of their honesty. And if the desire 
and the opportunity to cheat were present, we can 
feel no reasonable assurance, in view of the investi- 
gations of Mrs. Sidgwick and Dr. Hodgson, and 
the surprising results obtained by Mr. Davey, that 
cheating would have been detected. 

The same considerations apply with even greater 
force to the mediumship of Mr. Stainton Moses. 
The evidence for the phenomena observed by Dr. 
Speer and others rests almost solely on the pre- 
sumption of Mr. Moses' honesty. If his abnormal 
gifts merely took the shape of an abnormal propen- 



I 1 6 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

sity for mystifying and cheating his friends, it is 
clear that the physical obstacles in his path were by 
no means insuperable. 

To deceive a heterogeneous assemblage of be- 
lievers and sceptics who had employed the best pre- 
cautions they knew against deception is, as we have 
seen, a task well within the competence of the ordin- 
ary professional medium. Mr. Moses, whilst enjoy- 
ing in common with these professionals the darkness 
which is their first line of defence, played his part 
unhampered by " test conditions," in the presence 
of a few intimate friends, whose confidence in his 
integrity was absolute. Dr. Speer had no suspicions 
and appears to have taken no precautions. He re- 
cords as an interesting fact in the spiritual economy 
that the lights required spirit hands, and occasionally 
part of a forearm to support them ; he mentions 
that Mr. Moses floated about the room apparently 
on no other evidence than Mr. Moses' word, and 
the direction of his voice. The regular attendant 
at Spiritualist circles a generation ago was not prone 
to think evil of his fellow-men ; but even such a one 
might perhaps have held it a suspicious circumstance 
if, stretching out his hand in the dark to the centre 
of the table, he had encountered another hand not 
that of a sitter. Dr. Speer writes down the cir- 
cumstance without comment, as a ''phenomenon." * 
Yet it is noteworthy that this chance encounter in 
the dark was apparently the only occasion recorded 
on which he or any sitter at these seances was per- 

1 S. P. P., ix., p. 314. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. WJ 

mitted to touch (instead of being touched by) a 
materialised hand. Again, it seems clear that most 
of the phenomena could have been accomplished by 
normal agencies. There is, as said, no evidence for 
the levitation beyond Mr. Moses' own statement. 
The building up of the cross in Mr. Moses* bedroom, 
the introduction of various objects from other rooms 
into the seance room, the spirit writing, and the 
production of scents and jewels, are all feats clearly 
within the compass of a little fraudulent ingenuity, 
operating in a uniquely favourable environment. 
The musical sounds and spirit-lights so minutely 
described by Dr. and Mrs. Speer present more diffi- 
culty. We can hardly suppose a Jew's harp and a 
bottle of phosphorised oil adequate to such opulent 
and varied effects. If they were indeed produced 
fraudulently, we must admit either a more elaborate 
apparatus than, in the circumstances, seems at all 
probable, or a very free interpretation and embel- 
lishment by the witnesses' imagination of phenom- 
ena in themselves comparatively simple. 

But the hypothesis of fraud in this case presents, 
it maybe admitted, special difficulties. Against the 
supposition of conscious fraud we have to oppose 
Mr. Moses' education, his social position, and the 
apparent sanity of his whole external life passed in 
a certain publicity, as at once a Master in a large 
school, and the leader of an important social move- 
ment. But if we suppose a condition of double 
memory, like that of the somnambulist, arising 
spontaneously, we are met by difficulties of another 



Il8 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

kind. It is not enough to suggest that Mr. Moses 
may have been in a state of morbid semi-conscious- 
ness at the seance, when the phenomena ''came off," 
for many of them implied a certain amount of prep- 
aration ; and the hypothesis becomes almost un- 
manageably cumbrous if we extend this morbid 
state beyond the actual seance, and suppose that 
Mr. Moses' right hand escaped his notice in con- 
veying scent-bottles, Parian statuettes, brass candle- 
sticks, and jewelry into his pockets in preparation 
for the evening's performance, And there remains 
to be explained the difficult fact that Mr. Moses be- 
lieved, or affected to believe, in his own manifesta- 
tions to such an extent that he propounded a whole 
religious system based upon his own automatic 
" writings," and dedicated his whole after life to the 
movement of which he himself in his double capacity 
of physical medium and inspired Teacher was the 
mainstay. If all these things were really the result 
of semi-conscious fraud, it must be frankly admitted 
that psychology offers us at present no parallel 
case. Of the three possible explanations ( for sheer 
exaggeration and misrepresentation on the part of 
the witnesses may be put out of the question), 
viz : ( i ) that the things were the manifestations of a 
new force ; (2) that Mr. Moses did them consciously 
and deliberately ; (3) that he did them in some state 
in which he was not wholly responsible for his. 
actions — none are easy. But for my own part, 
whilst wavering to some extent between the 2d 
and the 3d, I incline on the whole to accept the 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 1 1 9 

latter as involving the least violation of proba- 
bility. 1 

It would be impossible within reasonable limits 
of space to criticise Mr. Crookes's experiments with 
Home in detail. Nor do I feel myself competent 
for the task. It would be an impertinence on my 
part to suggest that in conducting these experi- 
ments, in which his reputation is pledged no less 
than in his researches with the radiometer and the 
spectroscope, and of whose genuineness he professes 
himself equally assured, Mr. Crookes divested 
himself of the critical faculty, the power of analysis, 
the habit of accurate observation — in a word, of the 
whole results of his life's training. Through Mr. 
Crookes's courtesy I have had the opportunity of 
discussing the matter with him personally ; and I 
confess that I am not prepared with any cheap and 
ready-made solution of the problems. It may be 
pointed out, however, that in the sittings with 
Home the light in the room was lessened on several 
occasions shortly before some of the most striking 
manifestations, e.g., the levitations, and the hand- 
ling of red-hot coals ; also that the movements of 
articles of furniture and other objects bear a gener- 
ic resemblance to phenomena known to have been 
produced fraudulently by other mediums ; and, gen- 
erally, that the absolute conviction which Mr. 
Crookes and the circle appear to have entertained 
of Home's honesty, may have led at times to the 

1 Some account of the alleged spirit communications received through Mr. 
Moses' physical organism is printed as an appendix to this chapter. 



120 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

relaxation of precautions, when such relaxation 
would certainly have vitiated the observations. But 
I cannot pretend to find in the solution thus 
indicated much intellectual satisfaction. 

The results obtained with Miss Cook stand on a 
different footing. These seances were, as I under- 
stand, of an informal character ; full notes were 
not taken, nor was it originally intended that the 
results should be published in any form. The 
inner room, which served as a cabinet, was left in 
absolute darkness ; the laboratory, where the circle 
sat, was illuminated by a light so faint that reading 
or note-taking was practically impossible. I can- 
not feel that the conditions, and especially the 
mental attitude of the circle, were such as to 
render detection probable, if Miss Cook had chosen 
to masquerade as a spirit form ; whilst her position 
as a guest in the house would have facilitated the 
introduction of an accomplice from the outside, or 
the subornation of a servant to play the part, on 
the rare occasions when there is evidence that 
medium and " spirit " were separate entities. 

But it is difficult to suppose that the most imbecile 
laxness of observation, or the most fatuous disregard 
of elementary precautions, would account for the 
handling of red-hot coals and other substances 
described by so many witnesses ; or for the elonga- 
tion and levitation of Mr. Home, as witnessed in a 
lighted room at close quarters by the Master of 
Lindsay and Lord Adare. I find myself unable to 
conceive that simple trickery could, under the cir- 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 121 

cumstances described, be adequate to the effects 
reported. Short of admitting the phenomena as 
genuine, I can suggest but one plausible explana- 
tion — that the witnesses were to some extent hal- 
lucinated. It is not necessary to suppose in such 
a case a pure hallucination, containing no elements 
derived from actual sensation, if, indeed, a "pure" 
hallucination in this sense ever occurs. It may be 
conjectured that Home probably supplied certain 
material data, and guided the imagination of the 
percipients to complete the picture which he sug- 
gested to them. That, for instance, he really 
took live coals out of the fire, and possibly on some 
occasions held them in his hand, protected by some 
non-conducting substance ; that he really stretched 
himself to his full height, and thus produced that 
breach of continuity between waistcoat and trousers 
referred to by one of the witnesses to the phenom- 
enon of elongation 1 ; that when levitated as de- 
scribed in Chapter III., p. 52, he at least thrust his 
head and shoulders out of the window. There are 
not wanting illustrations of the kind of hallucinatory 
illusions here supposed, even in normal life. The 
records of the Society contain numerous cases of 
collective, so-called telepathic, hallucinations, where 
if the telepathic origin of the percept is not always 
clear, its hallucinatory nature is undoubted ; and 
there are two well-known classes of hallucinations 
of this kind — the visions seen at the time of re- 
ligious epidemics, and the hallucinations of the 

1 Dialectical Report, p. 209. 



122 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

hypnotised subject. No one who has seen a group 
of boys studying a kitchen chair, in the belief that 
they are deciphering the inscription on a moss-grown 
tombstone, or flying in terror from a ghost extem- 
porised out of a white pocket handkerchief, will 
doubt the existence of collective hallucinations. 1 
And it must be remembered that the peculiar con- 
ditions upon which this liability to hallucination is 
assumed to depend are, to a certain extent, repro- 
duced at the Spiritualist seance. We find there 
the strong emotional excitement and the strained 
expectation which are characteristic of the religious 
epidemic, as well as the concentration and freedom 
from external stimuli which are commonly regarded 
as predisposing causes to hypnotic suggestibility. 
There can be little doubt that the prolonged sitting 
in darkness or subdued light, and the anticipation 
of the marvellous, which it is part of the medium's 
art to inspire, do tend to excite the imagination of 
the sitters. And it is to be noted that these con- 
ditions are practically unique. That the same wit- 
nesses are not liable to hallucination in ordinary 
life raises but a faint presumption against the oc- 
currence of hallucinations at a Spiritualistic seance. 
The British schoolboy does not at ordinary times 
mistake a lapdog for a baby. But many, perhaps 
most, schoolboys can, as we know, have this " sug- 
gested " to them under appropriate conditions. 
And in this connection it is to be noted that the 

1 See the discussion on the subject in Phantasms of the Livings vol. ii.,, 

pp. 183-188. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. P. 1 23 

conditions under which suggestions of this kind 
will operate are by no means identical in different 
subjects. With many persons suggestion — e. g. y not 
to feel pain under an operation — will take effect 
without loss of consciousness. 

And apart from these general considerations 
there is definite evidence that the Master of Lind- 
say, at any rate, was a likely subject for hallu- 
cinatory suggestion. He tells us 1 that at one 
period of his life, when suffering from overwork, 
he was subject to the hallucination of a black dog. 
Moreover, one night, when he slept on a sofa in 
Home's room, he describes seeing a flame of fire 
on his knee, a column of vapour, and a woman's 
figure, all apparently hallucinatory. On another 
occasion the Master of Lindsay and several others 
saw a crystal ball placed on Home's head emit 
flashes of coloured light ; and afterwards they all 
saw in the same crystal a view of the sea lighted 
up by the setting sun, with stars gradually appear- 
ing in the sky. This vision lasted for about ten 
minutes. 2 It may further be remarked that at Mr. 
Crookes's seances with Home, one or two of the 
observers would see luminous appearances, hands, 
or a shadowy form, when the rest of the circle 
could see nothing. 3 We have also received ac- 
counts of faces and lights seen at private circles 
which strongly suggest hallucination ; and it is a 



Dialectical Report, pp. 215, 216. 

Pp. 206, 207. 

See S. P. P., vi., pp. 114, 116, 120, etc. 



124 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC A I RESEARCH. 

common experience at seances with professional 
mediums that lights and spirit forms are seen by 
some only of the sitters. It may be suggested 
that the lights (not always visible to all the sitters) 
and the musical sounds at Mr. Moses' seances may 
perhaps have been hallucinations, or at least hal- 
lucinatory distortions of genuine lights and sounds. 

In support of the suggestion that some of the 
phenomena witnessed at Spiritualist seances may 
be attributed to hallucination, it may be mentioned 
here (as will be shown farther on, in Chapter X.), 
that the hallucinations observed in haunted houses 
may in many cases be traced with some plausibility 
to the condition of excitement and expectation in- 
duced by the prior occurrence of mysterious noises 
and other disturbances. 

It may be concluded, then, that in face of ex- 
posures of fraud repeated ad nauseam ; in face of 
the observed propensity in this field to disinter- 
ested fraud ; in face of the demonstrated incom- 
petence even of trained observers to cope with 
fraud, we should not be justified in assuming any 
other cause for the physical phenomena of Spiritual- 
ism than fraud, eked out possibly on rare occasions 
by fraudulently suggested hallucinations. Unless 
and until some feat is performed which fraud can- 
not explain, the presumption that fraud is the all- 
sufficient cause remains unshaken. In Mr. Crookes's 
words : 

" The Spiritualist tells of flowers with the fresh dew on 
them, of fruit and living objects being carried through closed 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 1 25 

windows and even solid brick walls. The scientific investi- 
gator naturally asks that an additional weight (if it be only 
the 1000th part of a grain) be deposited on one pan of his 
balance when the case is locked, and the chemist asks for 
that 1000th of a grain of arsenic to be carried through the 
sides of a glass tube in which pure water is hermetically 
sealed." 

When this demand is complied with, or when 
any other result is produced which does not depend 
for proof of its genuineness on the exercise of con- 
tinuous observation by fallible human senses, then 
it will be time to revise our provisional conclusion, 
and to search for some other explanation. 

Note on the Alleged Spirit Messages Received by Mr. Stainton 

Moses. 
In connection with the discussion (above, Chapter IV.) on the 
credibility of the physical phenomena alleged to have occurred 
through the mediumship of Mr. Stainton Moses, the following 
summary of the evidence for spirit communications received 
through his agency is offered for the reader's consideration. 
These communications were accepted, in Mr. Moses' lifetime, 
by the general consent of English Spiritualists, at any rate, as 
affording a solid basis for their belief. And since his death 
Mr. Myers, who has edited some of his posthumous papers 
and his MSS. notes of seances, has been able to bring forward 
fresh proofs of the authenticity of these communications from 
disembodied spirits. Some of the evidence for those com- 
munications was published in Mr. Moses' lifetime in a small 
volume, Spirit Identity, now for some time out of print. 1 Fuller 
information on the cases referred to in this book and on some 
others is contained in Mr. Myers's article on The Experiences of 
W. Stainton Moses, Part II. 2 From these two sources we have 
records of communications, purporting to be of an evidential 
character, from thirty-eight deceased persons. These cora- 

1 London, W. H. Harrison, 1879. 2 S. P. R., xi., pp. 24-113. 



126 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

munications are indeed recorded by Mr. Moses himself ; and, 
with a few exceptions, there is no express corroboration from 
any other person of the accuracy of the records. In two or 
three cases, however, we have a detailed account from some 
other member of the circle fully according with Mr. Moses' 
own ; and in at least one case (Abraham Florentine) the 
record of the seance was published before its correspondence 
with the facts was generally known. And as regards the re- 
maining records it may fairly be urged that as the surviving 
members of the circle, who have had the opportunity of read- 
ing the published accounts, have not challenged their accuracy, 
they have thus received indirect but valuable corroboration. 
For our present purpose, at any rate, we may assume that 
these records, at least so far as they relate to incidents which 
occurred at seances when other members of the circle were 
present, may be taken as accurate. 

To give some idea of the character of the evidence, I will 
begin by quoting two or three cases which Mr. Moses himself 
selected during his lifetime as amongst the best proofs of spirit 
identity. 1 

The Case of Charlotte Buckworth. 

" A spirit communicated by means of raps, giving particulars 
as to her life which were precise, and entirely unknown to 
any member of the circle. On the day following I inquired 
respecting her (of the ordinary controlling spirit) . . . 

" ' It was said that Charlotte Buckworth, the spirit in ques- 
tion, had been suddenly deprived of bodily existence in 1773, 
at a party of pleasure, at a friend's house in Jermyn-street. 
Further inquiry elicited the information that she had suffered 
from a weak heart, and had dropped down dead while dancing. 
My friend, who was writing, could not say whose house, but 
subsequently returned to give me the information, — Dr. 
Baker's, on December 5th. We were not able to verify this 
information, and had given no further thought to the matter. 

1 Spirit Identity, pp. 105-112. S. P. R., xi., pp. 78 and 82. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. \2J 

Some considerable time after, however, Dr. Speer had a friend 
at his house, who was very fond of rummaging among old 
books. We three were talking one evening in a room in which 
there were a number of books rarely used, arranged in shelves 
from floor to ceiling. 

" ' Mr. A. (as I will call him) mounted a chair to get at the 
topmost shelf, which was filled with volumes of the Annual 
Register. He took one down amid a cloud of dust, and com- 
mented on the publication as a valuable record of events. 
Almost anything, he said, could be found in it. As he said 
this, the idea flashed into my mind at once most vividly that 
there was the place to look for a record of Charlotte Buck- 
worth's death. The event would probably create interest, and 
so would be found in the obituary which each volume con- 
tains. The impression was so strong — it seemed as though a 
voice spoke to my inner sense — that I hunted out the volume 
for 1773, and there I found, among the notable deaths, a 
record of this occurrence, which had made a sensation as 
occurring at an entertainment at a fashionable house, and 
with awful suddenness. The facts were exactly given. The 
book was thickly covered with dust, and had evidently not 
been disturbed since it had been consigned to the shelf. I 
remembered that the books had been arranged five years be- 
fore ; there they had lain ever since, and but for Mr. A.'s 
antiquarian tastes no one would have meddled with them. 
The verification was, I believe, as distinctly spiritual in its 
suggestion as was the communication.' " 

Of the case next to be quoted Mr. Moses writes that " It 
has been considered, on the authority of persons who think 
they are best able to judge, as the best evidence ever pro- 
duced for spirit-identity." 

The Case of Abraham Florentine. 

The letter, of which the following is an extract, appeared 
in the Spiritualist newspaper of Dec. n, 1874, over the signa- 
ture M. A. Oxon (the well-known pseudonym employed by 
Mr. Moses). 



128 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

" In the month of August last I was staying with Dr. Speer 
at Shanklin, Isle of Wight. We had a number of sittings, and 
at one of them a spirit communicated, who gave his name as 
Abraham Florentine. He said that he had been concerned in 
the war of 1812, and that he had lately entered spirit-life at 
Brooklyn, U. S. A., on August 5th, at the age of eighty-three 
years, one month, and seventeen days. We had some diffi- 
culty at first in making out whether the months and days 
referred to the age or to the length of his illness ; but he re- 
turned on the following evening, and cleared up the difficulty. 
The manner in which the communication was made was most 
singular. We were seated, three in number, round a heavy 
loo table, which two persons could move with difficulty. In- 
stead of the raps to which we are accustomed, the table 
commenced to tilt. So eager was the communicating spirit 
that the table rose some seconds before the required letter was 
arrived at. In order to mark T it would rise, quivering with 
excitement, in a manner perfectly indescribable, about K, and 
then descend at T with a thump that shook the floor. This 
was repeated until the whole message was complete ; but so 
eager was the spirit, and so impetuous in his replies, that he be- 
wildered Dr. and Mrs. Speer completely (I was in deep trance) 
and caused the process to be prolonged over the whole sitting. 
If I may venture a guess, I should say that Abraham Floren- 
tine was a good soldier, a fighting man not nice to meet, and 
that he retains enough of his old impetuosity to rejoice at his 
liberation from the body, which (if I may guess again) had 
become a burden to him through a painful illness. 

" Will the American papers copy, and enable me to verify 
my facts and guesses ? " M. A. (Oxon)." 

It appears that all the particulars given by the spirit, with 
one trifling exception, were subsequently verified, partly by in- 
formation received from the office of the Adjutant General for 
the State of New York, partly from conversation with his 
widow, still (in 1875) living in Brooklyn. The one exception 
was that Mrs. Florentine believed the age of the deceased to 
be eighty-three years, one month, and twenty-seven days. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 1 29 

Both these communications, it will be seen, purported to 
come from comparatively obscure persons, whose lives had no 
obvious point of contact with Mr. Moses or any member of 
his circle. There are eleven more cases which come under 
this head, of whom four were very young children. In the 
remaining twenty-five records, the spirit in some six or eight 
cases represented a personage of some historical importance — 
Bishop Wilson, Beethoven, Swedenborg, Louis Napoleon, Presi- 
dent Garfield, Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, — whilst the remain- 
der (including the last named) had been acquaintances either 
of Mr. Moses himself, or of some other member of the circle, 
generally the Speer family. 

Now the evidence that these spirit communications were 
what they professed to be is roughly of three kinds. 

(a) The record of facts in the life of the communicating 
intelligence presumably unknown to the medium or any person 
present. 

(b) The communication of the fact of the death before it 
could be known by normal means. 

(c) The reproduction of characteristic handwriting. 

(a) As regards the first point, the spirits of friends and ac- 
quaintances hardly ever communicated a fact of the nature of 
a test. It is obvious that Mr. Moses' own statement that his 
grandmother, or an old friend of his family, or Bishop Wilber- 
force, reminded him of incidents in his past life which he had 
forgotten, scarcely merits that description. There are vague 
statements that spirit friends of Mr. and Mrs. Speer mentioned 
names, dates, and facts unknown to Mr. Moses. One or two 
instances are given, such as that a sister of Dr. Speer, deceased 
in her childhood, gave her three Christian names — Catherine 
Stanhope Pauline — one of which Dr. Speer had never heard 
or had forgotten. But it is obvious that an incident of this 
kind has little evidential value. If we assume Mr. Moses' 
good faith, it cannot be held very improbable that he may 
have at some time heard particulars of the past history of his 
friend's family, which had since lapsed from his conscious 
memory. But the communications received from various un- 
known persons present us with a problem, of another kind. 



130 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

In marked contrast to the vague, fishing, and non-committal 
communications received from most " test-mediums," Mr. 
Moses' spirits are prodigal of names, dates, and other obitu- 
ary facts. Thus, to quote a case : " On February 28, 1874, a 
spirit came by raps and gave the name ' Rosamira.' She said 
she died at Torquay on January 10, 1874, and that she had 
lived at Kilburn. She stated that her husband's name was 
Lancaster," and added that his Christian name was Ben. Mr. 
Moses himself was moved to admiration by the business-like 
brevity of this spirit. " It is important to say," he remarks, 
" that not only were the facts literally true, but that nothing 
was said that was not true ; nor was there any surplusage of 
detail — only plain, definite, positive fact." All the particulars 
given at the Seance were, in fact, contained in the notice of 
the death published in the Daily Telegraph some weeks pre- 
viously. This case may be taken as typical. Mr. Moses' spirits 
came, gave obituary notices of themselves, setting forth with 
accuracy and despatch the names and dates, and occasionally 
the disease of which they died, and then disappeared. Thomas 
Wilson indeed, sometime Bishop of Sodor and Man, gave a 
pretty full biography of himself, which took, we are told, two 
hours to deliver. The facts thus communicated have been 
verified by Mr. Myers in Stowell's Life of Bishop Wilson} It 
is interesting to recall in this connection that Mr. Moses passed 
part of his early life in the Isle of Man. 

But reproductions of obituary notices from the daily 
papers, or of the biographies of eminent personages, are 
clearly not evidential, unless we have not merely full confi- 
dence in the good faith of the medium, but are satisfied that 
he could not have read and forgotten these biographies or 
obituary notices. One opportunity did, indeed, offer for a 
test. Among the thirty-eight spirits there is one who came to 
testify to his identity under very striking circumstances. On 
the morning of Saturday, Feb. 21, 1874, a man had thrown 
himself under a steam-roller in Baker Street, London, and 
had been crushed to death. In the evening of the same day 

1 S. P. R., xi., p. 88. 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 131 

the spirit of this man, we are told, visited Mr. Moses and his 
circle, drew through the medium's hand an indistinct picture 
of a horse and vehicle, and gave an account of the accident. 
This information is not of much value from a sceptical stand- 
point, since Mr. Moses might have heard of the accident when 
he passed through Baker Street earlier in the day, or might 
have read of it in the Pall Mall Gazette before he came to the 
seance. But the Pall Mall Gazette did not mention the name 
of the suicide. It is to be regretted then — and the more so 
because the incidents of this seance are attested by an inde- 
pendent account contributed to the Spiritualist by Mr. F. W. 
Percival — that among the thirty-eight communicating intelli- 
gences this particular spirit alone chose to remain anonymous. 1 
(b) If we turn now to the second head, we shall find that 
there is no independent evidence that the communications 
were ever received until after such an interval as would allow 
of the facts of the death and attendant circumstances being 
ascertained from the daily papers. In the case of deaths 
occurring in England the interval was usually several days. 
In the case of Abraham Florentine, who died in America on 
the 5th August, 1874, the seance at which the communication 
was made is described, in the only account we possess — an ac- 
count written in December of that year — as having taken place 
4t last August." In the only other case of a death at a distance 
where we can apply this test, we are fortunately able to fix the 
date precisely. On the last day of 1873 and at the beginning 
of 1874 there died in India three young children. The obitu- 
ary column of the Times (London) of Feb. 4, 1874, contained 

1 The paragraph in the Pall Mall Gazette, Feb. 21, 1874, runs as follows : 
" A cab-driver, out of employment, this morning threw himself under a 
steam-roller which was being used in repairing the road in York Place [part 
of Baker Street is so-named], Marylebone, and was killed immediately." 
Incidentally the paragraph furnishes an explanation of the drawing with 
which, in place of the usual names and dates, the spirit prefaced his com- 
munication. Mr. Percival described this as " a horse fastened to a kind of 
cart or truck," and suggested that it had reference to a brass figure of a 
horse on the front of the steam-roller. If I may venture to interpret the 
communication, I would suggest that the intelligence which guided Mr. 
Moses' hand intended to draw a horse attached to a London cab. 



132 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

the following notice : " At Umballa, India, the three children 
of W. C. Nigel Jones, Esq., and Constance his wife, namely : 
on the 31st Dec. 1873, Bertie Henry D'Oyly, aged 1 year and 
7 months ; on the 3rd Jan. 1874, Edward George Nigel, aged 
2 years and 9 months, and on the 5th Jan. 1874, Archie Will- 
iam Cholmeley, an infant." On Feb. 10, 1874, the whole of 
these particulars- — full names, ages, and dates, with a slight 
variation in the spelling — were reproduced at the seance. 

In three cases only does the announcement of the death 
purport to have been made within twenty-four hours of the 
occurrence. One of these, the suicide under the steam-roller, 
has been discussed. The evidence for the other two was ob- 
tained posthumously by Mr. Myers from Mr. Moses' note- 
books. A lady — " Blanche Abercromby " — known to Mr. 
Myers, whom Mr. Moses had met at least once at a Spirit- 
ualistic seance, died in the country on a certain Sunday after- 
noon in 1874. Notice of her death appeared in the Times on 
the Monday morning. In one of Mr. Moses' note-books there 
was found a communication claiming to be from this lady and 
written in a handwriting resembling hers, which announced 
the fact of her death. This communication purported to have 
been made on the Sunday evening — before, that is, the death 
would be known in London to any but her intimate friends, 
amongst whom Mr. Moses was not numbered. So, on the 
death of President Garfield, Mr. Moses' note-book records, 
that the fact was communicated to him some hours before the 
news reached Bedford, where he was then residing. Of both 
these communications it is enough to say that they were ex 
hypothesi made at a time when Mr. Moses was alone, and that 
we have no corroborative evidence of any kind that they were 
made at the time alleged. 

(e) As regards the evidence from handwriting : Messages 
in writing characteristic of the deceased person were 
frequently produced at the seances, and in Mr. Moses' note- 
books when he was alone. In some instances the hand- 
writing was that of a historical personage — Bishop Wilson, 
Beethoven, Swedenborg ; in others, that of some person 
known in life to the medium ; in one or two cases the writing 



SPIRITUALISM AND THE S. P. R. 1 33 

reproduced was that of some deceased friend of the Speers, of 
whose existence Mr. Moses professed himself ignorant ; and 
in one other case — " Blanche Abercromby " — there is no evi- 
dence that Mr. Moses had ever had the opportunity of seeing 
the writing of the deceased. On the other side, excluding 
infants, there were nine communications received from total 
strangers both to Mr. Moses and the circle. Messages in 
characteristic handwriting from any one of these persons 
would haVe possessed some evidential value. But in only one 
of these cases is such evidence vouchsafed — the facsimile of 
the signature of a lady professedly unknown to Mr. Moses, 
which was produced, not in the circle, but when the medium 
was alone. 

It is scarcely necessary to comment upon this bald summary 
of the evidence upon which the claims of Mr. Moses to Spirit- 
intercourse are based. That it has been thought necessary to 
say so much is due less to the importance of the subject in 
itself, than to the prominence which has been given to these 
alleged communications, both during the " Medium's " life- 
time, and since his death. It will suffice to point out that, 
judged by the standard which we apply, and necessarily apply, 
to other records of the kind, they afford hardly evidence to 
justify even a suggestion that the messages — I will not say 
proceeded froni the source from which they purported to pro- 
ceed, — but that they involved any supernormal element what- 
ever. In otr^er words, apart from the moral difficulties 
involved, there is little or nothing to forbid the supposition that 
the whole of these messages were deliberately concocted by 
Mr. Moses himself, and palmed off upon his unsuspecting 
friends. He would not have had to go beyond the obituary 
columns of the daily papers, or the topmost shelf of Dr. Speer's 
library. Of those moral difficulties I have' already spoken in 
Chapter IV. The reader, with the evidence before him, may 
choose between the moral and the material miracle. At any 
rate, whatever the solution of the mystery of Mr. Moses' life, 
his works can scarcely be held to afford proof of Spirit-inter- 
course. 



CHAPTER V. 

POLTERGEISTS. 

OF the manifestations described in the preced- 
ing chapters, some few find a parallel in 
earlier times, or amongst uncivilised peoples at the 
present day. Thus, moving tables formed a feat- 
ure in some ancient Egyptian mysteries ; levitation 
was an occasional diversion of mediaeval saints ; 
and the fire-ordeal is found not only in European 
witchcraft stories, but amongst some modern sav- 
ages. But speaking generally the physical phe- 
nomena of the seance room belong to the last fifty 
years. There is no continuous chain of practice, 
or even of tradition, to connect the modern with 
the ancient miracles. Not so the Poltergeist, the 
fera nature? of Spiritualism ; visitations of raps 
and loud noises, accompanied by the throwing of 
stones, ringing of bells, smashing of crockery, and 
other disturbances of an inexplicable kind, have 
been reported from very early times, and have per- 
sisted down to the present day. Since the middle 
of the last century — to go no farther back — there 
have been many outbreaks of the kind, nor have 
the manifestations been confined to any one coun- 
try. We hear of a case, in 1750, in Saxony, of 

134 



POLTERGEISTS. 1 35 

mysterious stone-throwing, which lasted for some 
weeks, much to the annoyance of a clergyman and 
his two sisters, who were the victims of the out- 
break 1 ; there was a tumult of bell ringing in the 
Russian monastery of Tsareconstantinof in 1753 2 ; 
and there was the celebrated Cock Lane ghost, oc- 
curring in London in 1762. A mysterious out- 
break took place at Stockwell in 1772, by which 
one Mrs. Golding lost the greater part of her glass 
and crockery, and such other items as a jar of 
pickles, a pot of raspberry jam, and a bottle of 
rum. 3 Coming down to more recent times, we find 
in a small and now rare book called Bealings Bells, 
published in 1841 by Major Moor, F.R.S., for sale 
at a church bazaar, some twenty accounts, mostly 
at first-hand, of similar incidents. The disturb- 
ances described in Bealings Bells consisted gener- 
ally of bell ringing, but they included occasional 
noises of other kinds, movements of furniture, 
throwing of crockery and other small objects. 
And even now the newspapers every month re- 
count some story of mysterious stone-throwing, 
which has set a country village agape, and bewil- 
dered a rustic policeman ; perhaps even has formed 
a nine days' wonder in a London suburb. 

There are two points to be noticed in these ac- 
counts — the general similarity of the disturbances 



1 Annali dello Spiritismo, quoted in Light, February 22, 1896. 

2 The Russian Archives, 1878, pp. 278-9. 

3 From a contemporary tract, quoted by Mr. Andrew Lang, Cock Lane 
and Common Sense, pp. 118-121. 



I36 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

in many countries and in many different centuries, 
and their apparently inexplicable nature. The re- 
sults described are such as could not have been 
produced fraudulently, or only by the help of in- 
genious and complicated machinery ; and it is but 
here and there that we have even a confession of 
trickery, frequently extorted by threats, or perhaps 
an actual exposure of fraudulent devices, which seem 
for the most part, as in the Cock Lane case, ludi- 
crously inadequate to the effects. It seems equally 
incredible that the manifestations described should 
have been produced by any known physical means ; 
or that, if so produced, detection of the imposture 
should not have been the rule, instead of the insig- 
nificant exception. In short, we are driven either 
to assume a conjunction of extraordinary cunning 
on the part of one of the actors in the drama, with 
imbecile stupidity on the part of the rest, or to sur- 
mise that the things vouched for may actually have 
been due to the operation of some supernormal 
agency. The latter alternative is naturally that 
preferred by most of those who have reported 
these occurrences. To the writers of two or three 
generations ago, as to the Neo-Platonists and the 
early Fathers, these performances were the clumsy 
practical jokes of an ill-disposed demon. To the 
modern believer they appear as extra-corporeal 
manifestations of the psychic force of the medium. 
If we leave on one side the physical phenomena of 
the Spiritualistic seance, it is probable that there is 
no marvel of modern times which has won more 



P OL TER GEIS TS. 1 3 7 

general attention and acceptance, or for which so 
much evidence, of a sort, is forthcoming. For this 
reason the Society for Psychical Research has wel- 
comed reports of these phenomena from independ- 
ent observers, 1 whilst from time to time members 
of the Society have investigated such cases either 
during the actual occurrence of the disturbances, 
or — if that were not practicable — by visiting the 
locality and interrogating the witnesses as soon as 
possible after the events. 

Case I. Worksop. 

The first case investigated by us occurred in the 
early part of 1883, at Worksop, in the house of a 
small horse-dealer, named White. I went to Work- 
sop on April 7th, interviewed all the principal wit- 
nesses of the disturbances, took full notes of their 
evidence, and obtained signed accounts from three 
persons — White himself, Higgs (a policeman), and 
Currass (a neighbour). 

Briefly the account which I received was as fol- 
lows : 

On the 20th or 21st of February, Mrs. White, being alone in 
the kitchen with two of her young children, was washing up the 
tea things, when the table, apparently without the contact of 
any person, tilted up at a considerable angle. The whole 
incident impressed her as very extraordinary. On Monday, 

26th February, a girl of about sixteen, named Eliza R , the 

daughter of an imbecile mother, came as a servant. On the 
morning of Thursday, 1st of March, White went away until 
Friday afternoon. On Thursday night at about 11 p.m. Tom 

1 Two such are printed in Proceedings, vol. vii., pp. 160-173, and 383- 
394. 



138 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

White, Joe White's brother, aged about twenty, went up-stairs 
to bed. The children, who also slept upstairs, had been in 

bed some hours previously. Mrs. White and R were then 

left alone in the kitchen. At about 1 1.30, a corkscrew, clothes- 
pegs, a salt-cellar, and many other things, which had been seen 
in the kitchen a few minutes before, came tumbling down the 
kitchen stairs. Some hot coals were also thrown down. Tom, 
who had been upstairs twenty minutes or half an hour, denied 
having thrown the things down. 

On the following night at about the same hour, White, Mrs. 

White, and R being alone in the kitchen, a surcingle, 

pieces of carpet, knives, forks, and other things were thrown 
down-stairs. The girl picked them up ; but they followed 
still faster. White then left the room to go up to Tom. 
During his absence one of the ornaments flew off the mantel- 
piece into the corner of the room near the door. Nothing 
was seen by the two women ; but they heard it fall, and 
found it there. Their screams summoned White down ; as 
he entered the room his candle went out, and something 
struck him on the forehead. . The girl picked up the candle 
— which appears to have left the candlestick — and two new 
ones, which had not been in the house previously, from the 
ground ; and as soon as a candle was lit, a little china woman 
left the mantelpiece and fell into the corner, where it was seen 
by White. As soon as it was replaced it flew across the room 
again and was broken. Other things followed, and the women 
being very frightened, and White thinking that the disturb- 
ances presaged the death of his child, who was very ill with 
an abscess in the back, sent Tom (who was afraid to go alone) 
with Ford (a neighbour) to fetch the doctor. Mrs. White 
meanwhile took one of the children next door. R ap- 
proached the inner room to fetch another, when things imme- 
diately began to fly about and smash themselves in that room. 
After this ail appear to have been absent from the house for a 
short time. White then returned, with Higgs. the policeman, 
and, whilst they were alone in the kitchen, standing near the 
door, a glass jar flew out of the cupboard into the yard ; a 
tumbler also fell from the chest of drawers in the kitchen,. 



POLTERGEISTS. 1 39 

when only Higgs was near it. Both then went into the inner 
room, and found the chest of drawers there turned up on end 

and smashed. On their return they found R , Wass (a 

neighbour), and Tom White in the kitchen, and all saw a 

cream-jug, which R had just placed on the bin, fly four 

feet up in the air and smash on the floor. Dr. Lloyd and 
Mrs. White then entered, and in the presence of all these wit- 
nesses, a basin was seen to move slowly from the bin, wob- 
bling as it rose in the air — no person being near it except Dr. 
Lloyd and Higgs. It touched the ceiling, and then fell sud- 
denly to the floor and was smashed. This was at midnight. 
All then left except Tom White and his brother. The disturb- 
ances continued until about 2 a.m., when all grew quiet, and 
the Whites slept. At about 8 a.m. on Saturday, the 3d, the 
disturbances began again. 

White left the kitchen to attend to some pigs ; and in his 

absence Mrs. White and R were left alone in the kitchen. 

A nearly empty port-wine bottle leaped up from the table 
about four feet into the air, and fell into a bucket of milk, 
standing on the table, from which Mrs. White was filling some 
jugs. 

Then Currass appears to have been attracted to the scene. 
He entered with White, young Wass, and others, and viewed 
the inner room. They had but just returned to the kitchen, 
leaving the inner room empty, and the door of communication 
open, when the American clock, which hung over the bed in 
the inner room, was heard to strike. (It had not done so for 
eighteen months previously.) A crash was then heard, and 
Currass, who was nearest the door, looked in, and found that 
the clock had fallen over the bed — about four feet broad — 
and was lying on the floor. Shortly afterward, no one being 
near it, a china dog flew off the mantelpiece, and smashed 
itself in the corner near the door. Currass and some others 
then left. 

Some plates, a cream-jug, and other things, then flew up in 
the air, and smashed themselves in view of all who were in the 
kitchen — R , Mrs. White, and Mrs. Wass. 

A few more things followed at intervals, and then White 



140 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

could stand it no longer, and told the girl R that she 

must go. With her departure the phenomena ceased alto- 
gether. 

It will be seen that the phenomena described are 
quite inexplicable by ordinary mechanical means. 
The actual witnesses of the disturbances, including 
Dr. Lloyd, were satisfied that no trickery could 
have produced what they saw. Nor does any 
serious suggestion of trickery seem to have been 
made by any of the neighbours who were ac- 
quainted with the circumstances. Some persons 
seem to have suspected White himself ; but, apart 
from the entire absence of motive (White was a 
considerable loser by the articles broken), no one 
was prepared with a suggestion of the mechanical 
means employed, beyond a vague allusion to the 
omnipotence of electricity. Moreover, White, it is 
admitted, was absent when the disturbances first 
broke out, and must, therefore, have had an accom- 
plice. But no one saw any suspicious movement, 
or could point to any circumstance tending to throw 
suspicion on White or anyone else, though the 
phenomena occurred at intervals during a period 
of about forty hours, and frequently in broad day- 
light in the presence of several witnesses. At the 
time I was much impressed with the strength of 
the evidence in this case for supernormal agency, 
and concluded my report as follows : 

"To suppose that the various objects were all moved by 
mechanical means argues incredible stupidity, amounting 
almost to imbecility, on the part of all the persons present who 



P OL TER GEIS TS. 1 4 1 

were not in the plot. That the movements of the arms neces- 
sary to set the machinery in motion should have passed unob- 
served on each and every occasion by all the witnesses is 
almost impossible. Not only so, but Currass, Higgs and Dr. 
Lloyd, all independent observers, assured me that they exam- 
ined some of the objects which had been moved immediately 
after the occurrence . . . that they could discover no 
possible explanation of the disturbances, and were fairly be- 
wildered by the whole matter." 

Two other cases may be referred to in this con- 
nection. 

Case II. Durweston. 

This case is of interest because, again, we have 
the contemporary evidence of an educated witness, 
who remains convinced of the genuineness of the 
manifestations. 

The disturbances began in December, 1894, at 
the village of Durweston, near Blandford, in a cot- 
tage tenanted by a respectable widow named Best, 
her daughter Julia, aged about sixteen, and two 
orphan children, who were boarded out from a 
London workhouse ; the elder, Annie, being about 
thirteen years of age. 

Mr. Westlake went to Durweston at the end of 
January, 1895, and took notes of his conversations 
with the various eye-witnesses. The disturbances 
consisted of loud noises, rappings on the walls, 
stone-throwing, etc. One witness, Newman, a 
gamekeeper, had seen shells, beads, thimbles, bits 
of slate-pencil, a boot and other objects thrown 
about the room in broad daylight. The pheno- 



142 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

mena which he claimed to have seen were quite in- 
explicable. His account was given to Mr. West- 
lake some five weeks after the events. 

The disturbances were also investigated by a 
local clergyman, the Rev. W. M. Anderson, who 
describes the following experiment. 

A slate and pencil were placed on the ledge of the window in 
the room in which Mrs. Best and the two children were in bed. 
The room was left in darkness, and Mr. Anderson with others 
remained at the bottom of the stairs. Then, to quote his ac- 
count : " Some fifteen seconds elapsed, and amid perfect 
silence we all heard the pencil scratch on the slate. Mrs. Best 
gave a suppressed groan, which I could distinctly hear. Four 
sharp raps were given almost simultaneously with the dropping 
of the pencil on the slate, and Mrs. Best gave a loud scream- 
ing call, ' Come.' I was in the room instantly. The light 
showed some unmeaning scratches on the slate." 

At a later performance the words " Mony " and " Garden " 
were found on the slate. 

Mr. Anderson is convinced of the supernormal 
character of this manifestation. It remains to add 
that the child Annie is of a decidedly consumptive 
tendency and apparently hysterical, and that both 
children are alleged to have seen a curious (halluci- 
natory) animal in the house. 

Case III. ArundeL 

This case was of the same general character. 
The disturbances, which took place in a cottage at 
Arundel, Sussex, in Feb., 1884, consisted of scratch- 
ings all about the bed in which a little girl of thirteen 
was lying ; loud unaccountable noises in the house ; 
the throwing down of a clock, chimney-piece orna- 



POLTERGEISTS. 143 

ments, a tray of potatoes, an iron pot, etc., in the 
presence of this girl. The chief witnesses were the 
girl's father and two grandmothers, and, according 
to their statements, the things moved were at such 
a distance from the girl that the movements could 
not have been effected by normal means. In this 
case, again, the girl claimed to have seen a ghostly 
figure in a white dress. The occurrences appear to 
have caused some sensation in the neighbourhood. 

So far no actual trickery has been detected, 
though in the last case the local doctor satisfied 
himself that trickery had been employed by the 
little girl ; and the gentlemen — Major King and 
Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor — who investigated the 
case on behalf of the Society, expressed themselves 
of the same opinion. Colonel Taylor, however, 
appears since 1884 to have changed his opinion. 1 

Now the value of the reports in these three cases 
as testifying to the operation of some supernormal 
agency depends upon two assumptions : first, that 
the various witnesses — for the most part imperfectly 
educated persons, not skilled in accurate observa- 
tion of any kind — correctly described what they 
saw ; and second, that after an interval varying 
from a fortnight in the last case to more than five 
weeks in the other two, during which their experi- 
ences had been discussed and compared and gaped 
at by every village fireside, and embellished in the 
public press, they correctly remembered what they 
described. The concordant testimony of so many 

1 See his letter in the Journal of the S. P. R., October, 1896. 



144 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAI RESEARCH. 

honest and fairly intelligent persons to the marvel- 
lous occurrences in White's house at Worksop cer- 
tainly produced a strong impression on my mind at 
the time. Nor do I see reason now to question 
my original estimate of their intelligence and good 
faith. If my verdict in 1897 differs from that 
which I gave, according to the best of my ability, 
in 1883, it is because many things have happened 
since, which have taught us to discount testimony 
in matters of this kind. In the course of the four- 
teen years which have elapsed we have received 
some striking object-lessons demonstrating the in- 
capacity of the ordinary unskilled observer to de- 
tect trickery or sleight-of-hand ; and we have learnt 
to distrust the accuracy of the unaided memory in 
recording feats of this kind, especially when wit- 
nessed under circumstances of considerable excite- 
ment. 

And, indeed, if we scrutinise the accounts of the 
various witnesses as they stand, we shall find omis- 
sions, discrepancies, and contradictions in the evi- 
dence. (1) Thus, according to White, Higgs and 
he went into the front room first, to see the damage 
done there, and on their return to the kitchen a 
glass jar flew out of the cupboard. But according 
to Higgs's version, it was after seeing the glass jar 
fly through the air that White and he went into the 
inner room. (2) White's account is that two or 
three witnesses were present when the glass jar flew 
out ; Higgs says " that no one else was in the room 
at the time." (3) There seems to be a doubt as to 



P OL TER GEIS TS. 1 4 5 

whether R. entered the kitchen during Higgs's visit. 
White does not mention her entrance at all. Higgs 
says they found her in the kitchen on their return 
from the inner room. (4) Currass says he was in 
the inner room on the morning of the 3d when the 
clock fell. White says that Currass was in the 
kitchen. (5) Again, White cannot remember where 
R. was at the time of the incident ; whilst Currass 
says that she was near the inner door. (6) White 
and Currass agree that Coulter was not present 
when the American clock fell and was smashed. 
Now Coulter, whom I saw, and who impressed me 
favourably as an honest man, stated that he was 
present when the clock fell, and also during the 
immediately succeeding disturbances in the kitchen. 

Such are some of the defects which appear in 
the evidence even as prepared and taken down from 
the lips of the witnesses by a too sympathetic re- 
porter. It is probable that more and more serious 
discrepancies and contradictions would have been 
found if there had been no speculation and con- 
sultation and comparison in the interval of five 
weeks ; and if each witness at the end of that time 
had written an independent account of the incidents. 

In four other cases which we have investigated, 
trickery was actually detected by one or more eye- 
witnesses. 

Case IV, Ham. 

Early in February, 1895, we received intelligence 
of a Poltergeist at Ham, a little village near Hun- 
gerford, in Berkshire. The following extract from 



146 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC A I RESEARCH. 

a letter written by a local clergyman will give some 
idea of how the matter was regarded in the neigh- 
bourhood : 

"F. Vicarage, Hungerford, Berks, 
" January 31, 1895. 
" There is a veritable ghost at Ham ; it has overturned boots 
and shoes from the slab of an oven on to the hob — overturned 
a stool, and pitched the cat on it into the fire — upset tables 

and all sorts of things. The tenant's name is T , and he 

works for Mr. W . W has put the man into an adja- 
cent, but not adjoining, house, and has had the floor of the 
house taken up, but has not discovered the cause, and now the 
same pranks are going on in the house into which the people 
have removed. It is no delusion — it takes place in broad day- 
light before people's eyes, and E. W. saw a table overturned 
on Tuesday. No one can explain it — it is quite a mystery, 
and is causing great excitement through the country-side ; 
people from Marlborough, Hungerford, and Froxfield visit the 
scene of these operations. They say that the people have a 
daughter who is eccentric and deformed." 

From several witnesses, including a police con- 
stable, we have received accounts of the disturb- 
ances. The lid of an oven was frequently seen to 
fall ; chairs, stools, and other articles of furniture 
were upset, in the presence of numerous witnesses, 
and frequently in broad daylight. Polly T., the 
little girl, was always present during these perform- 
ances, but the witnesses seem as a rule to have been 
completely satisfied that the movements were be- 
yond her power to execute, and many sent a plan 
of the room and the position of the people in it to 
demonstrate the impossibility of the movements 
being due to ordinary human agency. 



POL TERGEIS TS. 1 47 

Early in February Mr. Westlake went to Ham. 
On the morning following his arrival he wrote as 
follows : 

Letter I. 

Post Office, Ham, Hungerford, Berks, 
February 9, 1895. 

Nothing is alleged in this case but the frequent movements 
•of objects (except that Mrs. T. says that once she saw a 
woman's face in the oven). It is one of those baffling cases 
where the thing won't work, or only inconclusively, in the 
presence of strangers. At least that was my experience last 
evening ; some local observers have had better success, I hear. 
Nevertheless I think it to be genuine from the hundred and 
one indications which one gathers when talking with the folks 
around their hearth — the primitive seance. Polly, a little 
dwarfed, black-haired girl, turning twelve, sits in the chimney 
corner and nurses the cats Topsy and Titit — she is the centre 
of force — then (in the absence of strangers) the coals fly about 
and all movable objects are thrown down ad libitum, and ad 
nauseam according to their account. 

It has been a nine days' wonder, and local interest (all unin- 
telligent) is dying. 

The T — s, however, say that things are as active as ever 
(last evening, e. g.). The report that they have made money 
out of it seems to be untrue. 

On the same day, a few hours later, Mr. West- 
lake writes as follows : 

Letter II. 

The " Ham Ghost " is a humbug now, whatever it may have 
been. I made friends with the cats, and their mistress, poor 
child, gave me a private sitting of some two or three hours, in 
the course of which she moved between forty and fifty objects 
when she thought I was n't looking (her plan being to watch 
me till I looked away). However, I saw her in contact with 
the objects with every degree of distinctness, and on seven (at 



I48 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

least) occasions by simple devices I had a clear view of her 
hands in contact with the objects and saw them quickly moved. 
I entered into the spirit of the thing, and said nothing to any- 
one, beyond suggesting to the lady (Miss W.) at the Manor 
House that the affair would probably cease if no further atten- 
tion were paid to it, and that some one would do well to watch 
the child. 

She is a dwarf, aged twelve, who has only lately learned to 
walk, pale, with long, black hair, and eyes very sharp, and 
watches one like a cat a mouse. Her mother is said never to 
leave the house or to allow the child to do so. 

But it is curious that a little child should succeed in deceiv- 
ing a whole country-side, and especially in deceiving her par- 
ents (for I do not think they are implicated ; — if they have 
suspicions, they smother them ; they appear genuinely wor- 
ried). The mother would sometimes ask the child, after a 
particularly barefaced " upset," whether she did it, and she 
always denied. 

Mr. Westlake has kindly furnished the following 
additional particulars of what he observed : 

" After posting my first letter, I went to the T — s' and sat 
on a bench in front of the fire. No one else was present be- 
sides the child. She sat on a low stool in the chimney on the 
right of the fire. On the other side of the hearth there was a 
brick oven in which, much to Polly's interest, I placed a dish 
of flour, arguing that a power capable of discharging the con- 
tents of the oven (one of the first disturbances) might be able 
to impress the flour. After a time I went to the oven to see 
how the flour was getting on, stooping slightly to look in, but 
kept my eyes on the child's hands, looking at them under my 
right arm. I saw her hand stealing down towards a stick that 
was projecting from the fire ; I moved slightly and the hand 
was withdrawn. Next time I was careful to make no move- 
ment and saw her hand jerk the brand out on to the floor. She 
cried out. I expressed interest and astonishment ; and her 
mother came in and cleared up the debris. This was repeated 



P OL TER GEIS TS. 1 49 

several times, and one or two large sticks ready for burning 
which stood near the child were thrown down. Then a kettle 
which was hanging on a hook and chain was jerked off the 
hook on to the fire. This was repeated. As the kettle refused 
to stay on its hook, the mother placed it on the hearth, but it 
was soon overturned on to the floor and upset. After this I 
was sitting on the bench which stood facing the fire in front 
of the table. I had placed my hat on the table behind me. 
The little girl was standing near me on my right hand. Pres- 
ently the hat was thrown down on the ground. I did not on 
the first occasion see the girl's movements, but later, by seem- 
ing to look in another direction, I saw her hand sweep the 
hat off on to the floor. This I saw at least twice. A Windsor 
chair near the girl was then upset more than once, falling away 
from her. On one occasion I saw her push the chair over 
with both hands. As she was looking away from me, I got a 
nearly complete view. After one of these performances the 
mother came in and asked the girl if she had done it, but she 
denied it." 

It may be of interest to add that Mr. E. N. Ben- 
nett, of Hertford College, Oxford, spent nearly five 
hours in the cottage, and witnessed several move- 
ments of furniture. But though he strongly sus- 
pected the child of trickery, and watched her very 
closely, he was not able actually to detect any 
fraudulent movement on her part. 

Case V. Wem. 

In November, 1883, a series of disturbances 
broke out at Wood's Farm, near Wem, in Shrop- 
shire, in the presence of a small nursemaid, Emma 
D., a girl about thirteen years of age. The phe- 
nomena, as testified to by the farmer and his 
wife — intelligent persons — the local schoolmis- 



150 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

tress, and various neighbours, included violent 
movements of small objects and much smashing of 
crockery. Emma D. was seen by several witnesses 
to be levitated, chair- and all ; and the baby's clothes 
were on several occasions found alight, with a 
spent match lying near. No trickery was detected 
on the part of the girl ; and many of the manifesta 
tions, as described to us, were certainly inexplicable 
by trickery. The disturbances began on the ist of 
November. On Friday the 9th, Emma D., who 
had got into a very nervous state, was placed in a 
doctor's house at Wem, and put under charge of 
his housekeeper, Miss Turner. From this lady and 
Dr. Mackey, the late Mr. Hughes, who investigated 
the case, learnt that after the child's arrival 

" certain manifestations took place, similar in character to 
those that preceded them, and for two or three days they were 
quite unable to detect any fraud, though no manifestation 
ever took place when the girl was not in such a position that, 
she might have produced them by ordinary trickery. 

" Thus, in the presence of Dr. Mackey and Miss Turner a 
piece of bread jumped across the room, the girl not being actu- 
ally seen to throw it. On another occasion when Miss Turner 
had left the room, the girl suddenly screamed, and when Miss. 
T. returned, a pair of slippers were on the sofa which had just 
before been seen on the hearth-rug. Again, when Miss T. had 
just turned her back to the girl, the usual scream was heard, 
and turning round Miss T. saw a bucket in the air descending 
to the ground. A knife on another occasion was thrown 
across the room, being in the air when Dr. Corke's servant 
was entering the room. 

" On Tuesday morning, however, Miss Turner was in an 
upper room at the back of the house, and the servant of the 
establishment and Emma D. were outside, Emma having her 



POLTERGEISTS. 151 

back to the house, and unaware that she was observed. Miss 
Turner noticed that Emma D. had a piece of brick in her 
hand held behind her back. This she threw to a distance by 
a turn of the wrist, and while doing so, screamed to attract the 
attention of the servant, who, of course, turning round, saw 
the brick in the air, and was very much frightened. Emma 
D., looking round, saw that she had been seen by Miss Tur- 
ner, and apparently imagining that she had been found out, 
was very anxious to return home that night. 

" Miss Turner took no notice of the occurrence at the time, 
but the next morning (Wednesday) she asked the girl if she 
had been playing tricks, and the girl confessed that she had, 
and went through some of the performances very skilfully, 
according to Miss Turner's account." 

Notwithstanding this exposure the girl persist- 
ently denied that she had produced the previous 
disturbances. 

It may be added that, though Dr. Mackey con- 
sidered the child to be quite normal, Mr. Hughes 
found some evidence of unusual precocity on her 
part ; and she had, according to her mother's state- 
ment, been subject to fits since the outbreak of the 
disturbances. Moreover, the schoolmistress stated 
that during some of the disturbances Emma D. 
cried out that an old woman was at her and would 
not let her breathe. 

In two other cases of the kind, VI., Bramford, 
and VII., Waterford, trickery was detected, by two 
witnesses in each case, on the part of a young child. 

So far the agent or "medium" has been a child 
in humble circumstances, and we have had to rely 
for our accounts of the manifestations mainly upon 
the evidence of persons possessing little education. 



152 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

But in four other cases which we have inquired 
into the outbreak occurred in houses of more pre- 
tension, and both agent and witnesses were persons 
of fair education. In one instance, Case VIII., I 
received a partial confession from the agent (or one 
of the agents), a nervous and delicate boy of fifteen. 
In the three other cases no confession has been 
made, and no trickery has been detected ; but if 
we make such slight allowances for mal-observation 
and unintentional misrepresentation on the part 
of the witnesses as we are, I think, entitled to 
make, there is no difficulty, moral considerations 
apart, in attributing all the phenomena described 
to trickery. A single case will suffice. 

Case IX. 

The house in which the phenomena to be described took 
place is a small terrace-house in a town in the south of Eng- 
land, occupied by Mr. and Mrs. B. and their family. The 
younger daughter, Alice, is barely twelve. She is very tall 
and pale, and has apparently outgrown her strength ; and is 
compelled, under medical advice, to lie down on her bed for 
an hour or two every afternoon. She impressed me, on my 
visit to the house, as being very intelligent, energetic, and 
clever beyond her years. 

In the summer of 18 — the servant complained of hearing 
strange noises in the house, and seeing shadows behind her, 
and occasionally of being touched. In the course of the same 
year Mrs. B. on one occasion heard a tremendous blow on the 
door of a room in which she was sitting ; and on another oc- 
casion saw part of a figure clothed in a print dress through 
the half-open door of the dining-room.. 

In the autumn of the following year, however, the phenom- 
ena were very frequent and striking. The manifestations 



POLTERGEISTS. 1 53 

were of two kinds: (i) physical disturbances, (2) auditory 
and visual phenomena, which may have been hallucinations. 
It will be convenient first to consider the physical phenomena. 
If we omit such matters as blows on doors, the violent slam- 
ming of half-opened doors, and the fall of a picture from its 
nail, the most striking physical phenomena were the fol- 
lowing : 

I cite these in the order in which they are given in the nar- 
rative furnished by Mr. B. and other members of the family. 
(1) Alice, when alone in her room, found some newly shed 
blood on the floor. (2) Alice, entering her bedroom, closely 
followed by Miss K., an inmate of the house, found that her 
water-jug had been quite recently upset on the floor. (3) A 
water-jug was again found upset in the same bedroom, Alice 
being in the room alone at the time. (4) Mrs. B., in stooping 
down to kiss her daughter Alice good-night, felt distinctly a 
hand laid on her back. (5) A charwoman complained that a 
saucepan was dragged from her hand and dashed down on 
the stove. (6) A chair was moved in Mrs. B's room, Alice 
being the only other person present. (7) A picture was seen 
to move from its position on the wall of the dining-room to 
the extent of about four inches. It then, when commanded 
by Mrs. B., in the name of the Trinity, returned slowly to its 
original position. The witnesses to this phenomenon were 
Mrs. B., Alice, and Miss K. (8) A card-table, at which Mrs. 
B., Miss K., Miss B., and Alice were seated, moved sharply 
and struck Miss K. on the arm. (9) Two little boys were 
having tea with Alice in the dining-room. One of the little 
boys had first his leg and then his throat sharply pinched. 

It is, perhaps, not uncharitable to suggest that 
the fall of the saucepan may have been due to the 
clumsiness of the charwoman, and that the other 
disturbances were caused by Alice, by ordinary 
physical means. The only incident which, on this 
interpretation, offers any difficulty, is the movement 



154 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC A I RESEARCH. 

of the picture on the wall of the dining-room. This 
may have been effected by a string ; though I could 
find no trace either on the picture itself or on the 
adjacent wall of any such means having been used. 
Mrs. B. could not remember in what part of the 
room Alice was standing during the phenomenon ; 
and Miss K. and Mrs. B. assigned different posi- 
tions to Mrs. B. herself. I think it not impossible 
that the whole movement was imaginary. 

The visual and auditory phenomena were very 
curious and interesting. Mrs. B. and Miss K. at 
various times — sometimes together — heard voices 
speaking, moans, cries, rappings, footsteps, and 
loud noises. Some of these noises — the sounds of 
articulate sentences, for instance, — were apparently 
hallucinatory. There were also many visual hallu- 
cinations. Miss K., on two occasions, saw a hand 
— in one case, on the glass of a bookcase. Mrs. 
B., besides the hallucination of a woman's dress 
already referred to, saw, when in bed, a brilliant 
disc of white light and a dazzling white garment ; 
she also saw a shadowy black form on suddenly 
entering a dark room. She saw, in the middle of 
the afternoon, a lovely white bird, larger than a 
dove, gliding across the upper hall. Going up the 
stairs shortly after this vision, Mrs. B. saw a shower 
of gold and silver flakes. Alice, who accompanied 
her, saw them too, and went to fetch the char- 
woman. The charwoman " thought it rather 
pretty, and supposed it was motes." Perhaps it 
was. 



P OL TER GEIS TS. I 5 5. 

Alice also recited several experiences of her own, 
which may, perhaps, be classed as hallucinations : 
she was thumped on the back ; she felt something 
push against her in going up-stairs ; she heard 
moans, voices, and other noises ; and once, when 
lying down on her bed in the afternoon, she heard 
the sound of paper scraping on the wall, and, look- 
ing up, saw a coloured ball of paper fall from the 
ceiling and disappear in the basin. No such ball 
could be found. 

It should be added that the B. family regard the 
phenomena as inexplicable. 

In the two other cases under this head, X. and 
XL, the phenomena attested are about on a par 
with those above detailed. But the narratives 
possess one or two special features of interest. 
Space will not permit of their being quoted here, 
but some reference is made to them in the Sum- 
mary ; and a more detailed account of all the cases 
here dealt with, and of several others which have 
been reported to us, will be found in Proceedings^ 
S. P. R., vol. xii., pp. 45-115. 

It will be seen that these eleven cases bear a 
general resemblance throughout, and belong pretty 
obviously to the same class. It is therefore prima 
facie probable that an explanation which fits one 
case will fit all. An exception should perhaps be 
made in Case VIII., since it seems doubtful whether 
anyone was deceived by the manifestations in this 
case except the lady of the house. But in the other 
cases most of those who witnessed the disturbances, 



156 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

whether inmates of the house or neighbours, appear 
to have regarded them as inexplicable. 

Now the only explanation for which we have 
valid evidence at all is trickery. Trickery was act- 
ually detected by one or more witnesses in four 
cases. In two of these cases (V. and VI.) and in 
Case VIII., there was a confession of trickery. 
There is, therefore, strong ground for assuming 
trickery as the true and sufficient explanation in all 
eleven cases. In the first place, we may note that the 
phenomena described in the Wem and Ham cases, 
for instance, were prima facie as inexplicable as those 
testified to in other instances. But in these two 
cases we know that trickery was employed. It is to 
be noted also that in the Wem case the child was so 
skilful that, though she was under the close obser- 
vation of several pairs of eyes in the doctor's house, 
and though she brought off many " phenomena," it 
was not until the fifth day that she was actually de- 
tected in her performances, and then only through 
a surreptitious entry on the theatre. In the Ham 
case Mr. Westlake was able to detect the actual 
movements of the child only when the repetition of 
the performance taught him what to look for, and 
Mr. Bennett, despite his strong suspicions, failed 
altogether to obtain conclusive proof of fraud. And 
if we remember how many and how great were the 
errors in observation demonstrated by Dr. Hodg- 
son in the records given by educated persons of 
seances with Mr. Davey, we shall find it not un- 
reasonable to infer, even when direct evidence is 



P OL TER GEIS TS. I 5 7 

wanting, like errors in the testimony, mostly of un- 
educated persons, now under consideration. We 
have some indirect proof of the justice of this in- 
ference. It is to be noted that in the last four cases, 
where the witnesses were for the most part educated 
persons, and the record was in some instances almost 
contemporaneous with the events, it is not difficult 
to explain all that took place — with a few exceptions 
— as due to trickery. The proof of abnormal 
agency in these cases rests almost entirely on moral 
considerations. But in cases like those first cited, 
where the chief witnesses were persons of limited 
education, the phenomena attested are of a much 
more surprising kind ; and at Worksop and Dur- 
weston especially, where the witnesses were not 
only imperfectly educated, but did not give their 
testimony until some weeks after the events, the 
things described seem wholly inexplicable by nor- 
mal agencies. 

One feature in these records should be noticed in 
this connection. Many of the witnesses described 
the articles as moving slowly through the air, or 
exhibiting some peculiarity of flight. (See e.g. the 
Worksop case.) Similar peculiarities are noted by 
Mr. Bristow. 1 In describing the movement of pieces 
of wood in a carpenter's shop, he writes of them as 
now moving in a straight line and striking a door 
" noiselessly as a feather," and again "as though 
borne along on gently heaving waves." In a case 
which was investigated by one of our correspond- 

1 Proceedings, S. P. P., vol. vii., pp. 383-394. 



158 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

ing members, Herr Hans Natge, an account of 
which was published in Berlin in 1889, under the 
title Der Spuk von Resau, a similar phenomenon is 
described by the witnesses. Thus, a frying pan in 
the air is described as having the appearance not of 
a thing thrown, but of a thing flying ; and the wit- 
nesses are said to have noticed the absence of any 
curve of projection in the articles. In default of 
any experimental evidence that disturbances of the 
kind are ever due to abnormal agency, I am dis- 
posed to explain the appearance of moving slowly 
or flying as a sensory illusion, conditioned by the 
excited state of the percipients. 

Again, we have proofs in many of these records, 
of serious errors of memory. In several instances 
we find that the various witnesses to a phenomenon 
differed amongst themselves as to the position, or 
even the presence or absence, of particular persons ; 
or failed to mention at all the whereabouts of the 
presumed agent ; or imagined that they had been 
present at manifestations of which — according to 
other witnesses — they knew only by hearsay. 

Of the errors of narration perpetrated by jour- 
nalists in search of sensational copy, it is hardly 
necessary to speak, except to point out that the 
dramatic and exaggerated accounts of the disturb- 
ances given in the newspapers inevitably react up- 
on the memories of those who read them, and so 
tend still further to vitiate testimony. 

But it is much easier to infer that trickery has 
been practised in these cases than to find a plausi- 



P OL TER GEIS TS. 1 5 9 

ble motive for trickery. In most cases it is difficult 
to conceive that any adequate or even rational end 
was aimed at by the authors of the disturbance. A 
considerable amount of labour, extending in some 
cases over months or years, has been voluntarily 
undertaken by the agent ; much annoyance, ex- 
pense, and occasionally severe distress has been 
inflicted on other persons ; and a lively sensation 
has been caused in the neighbourhood. But there 
has been apparently no revenge to satisfy ; and 
such fame as lies in the mouths of rustics, and in 
occasional paragraphs in provincial newspapers, 
would hardly constitute for normal persons — even 
for children — a sufficient recompense for the labour 
incurred. And yet it is, in fact, in the desire to 
cause a sensation that the working motive is prob- 
ably to be found. The agent — or central figure — 
in the great majority of the cases is a young girl, 
roughly between the ages of twelve and sixteen, 
though one or two may have been a little older. 
In these eleven records, a young girl appears in 
eight cases and a young boy in two ; further, in 
one of the eight cases a young boy is apparently 
associated with his sister. But a further peculiar- 
ity is to be noted beside the youth of the agents, 
to wit, their mental and physical abnormality. In 
the Worksop case, the presumed agent was a half- 
witted girl, child of an imbecile mother. In the 
Wem case, Emma D. was stated by her mother to 
be subject to fits. In Case VI. the girl appears to 
have suffered from attacks of hysterical blindness. 



l60 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

In Cases IV. and X. the girl was deformed, in Case 
II. hysterical and consumptive. In Case VIII. the 
boy was delicate and liable to attacks of spontane- 
ous somnambulism ; and in Case IX. the girl is 
delicate and has outgrown her strength. Thus in 
eight out of the eleven cases we have evidence of 
ill-health or abnormality more or less pronounced. 
This evidence is strengthened if we accept the 
agent's own testimony for the occurrence of hal- 
lucinations. Thus, in Cases II., III., V., VI., IX., 
and X., the child agent was the subject of halluci- 
nations, which in Case X. were frequent and pro- 
longed. 

It may be suggested then that, in the majority 
of these cases, the real motive which impelled these 
children to a long series of apparently meaningless 
acts of mischief, was the excessive love of notoriety 
which is occasionally associated with other morbid 
conditions, especially in young girls. Case XL, on 
this view, remains unaccounted for, since the agents 
in this instance were educated adults, apparently 
free from morbid influences. 

To sum up : (i) In the eleven cases which we 
have investigated in detail, direct proofs of trickery 
have been obtained in several instances. (2) 
Where the phenomena have been recorded shortly 
after their occurrence by educated persons, trick- 
ery is found — moral considerations apart — to be 
an adequate explanation. (3) Where the phe- 
nomena have been described by illiterate persons, 
or recorded some time after the event, this ex- 



POL TERGEISTS. 1 6 1 

planation becomes difficult ; and the difficulty is 
found to increase directly with the length of the 
interval and inversely with the education of the 
witness. (4) But these eleven cases are fairly re- 
presentative of their class. A certain number of 
such cases are brought to our notice each year. 
These eleven cases were selected for investigation, 
mainly because, from the accounts in the press, or 
from reports received from trustworthy private 
sources, they seemed to present a prima facie case 
for abnormal agency. It is difficult to resist the 
conclusion that if the opportunity had been given 
to us, with the experience which we have now ob- 
tained, to undertake an equally full and searching 
inquiry into the cases of this kind which figure so 
largely in the literature of the subject, the evidence 
for abnormal agency would have been found as 
little calculated to convince. 

Before the subject is dismissed, attention may be 
directed to two points. The first is, that the moral 
presumption, upon which the evidence for abnor- 
mal physical phenomena occurring in the presence 
of private persons mainly depends, is seriously 
weakened by this demonstration of frequent, elab- 
orate, and long-continued trickery, practised occa- 
sionally even by educated persons, without apparent 
recompense or adequate motive. The second point 
is, that genuine hallucinations may apparently be 
associated with fraudulent physical phenomena. 
Leaving on one side the hallucinations alleged to 
have been experienced by the agents in many of 



1 62 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

these cases — though these are not without interest 
— we find hallucinations reported by the witnesses 
in several instances. Thus at Ham (Case IV.) one 
witness is recorded to have seen a woman's face in 
the oven ; and in Cases IX. and X. several credible 
witnesses give accounts of hallucinatory experi- 
ences. 1 Many of the auditory experiences, and at 
least two of the visual hallucinations, appear to 
have been " collective." 

These facts are of special interest in their bear- 
ing on the phenomena of collective hallucination, 
and on the genesis of hallucinatory disturbances- 
auditory and visual— in so-called " haunted houses." 

1 Luminous apparitions are said to have been seen by some of the wit- 
nesses in the Cock Lane case. 



CHAPTER VI. 

MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THEOSOPHY. 

THE history of the Theosophical movement, so 
far as it can be disentangled, appears to be 
somewhat as follows : In 1875, Madame Blavatsky, 
in concert with Colonel Olcott, an American gentle- 
man of honourable repute, and with a record of 
good service done during the War of Secession, 
founded in New York the Theosophical Society. 
Of Madame Blavatsky herself little was at that time 
known ; her life-history up to this point was for 
some time involved in an obscurity not wholly for- 
tuitous. For information regarding her past we 
had to rely mainly on her own account of herself ; 
and research tended to show that this guarantee 
was insufficient. But these few facts that follow 
appear to rest on a basis of somewhat superior 
certainty : — that she was a Russian lady of good 
family ; that she left Russia when young, and spent 
a nomad existence in Europe and elsewhere ; and 
that for two or three years previous to 1875 sne 
passed in Egypt and in the United States as a 
spirit medium. In or about that year, however, she 
appears to have discovered in herself powers quite 
superior to those of the ordinary medium, and to 

163 



164 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

have claimed intercourse with beings of a more ex- 
alted order than "John King" and other familiar 
spirits, from whom it is said that she had hitherto 
derived her inspiration. The Theosophical Society 
was founded for the reception and study of these 
new revelations, and for the practice of the rites 
enjoined as a necessary prelude to the initiation into 
theosophic mysteries. Strange rumours reached 
Europe in those years of the sudden appearance of 
mysterious Asiatics in that first-floor room in New 
York ; there were those who claimed to have spoken 
with these phantom visitants ; the president-founder 
himself held an interview with one of the "Brothers," 
who had come in ghostly form from far Thibet, and 
left behind him, for the confusion of the scoffer, the 
materialised turban which he wore. Strange tales, 
too, were told of the Russian princess who, with 
rare self-abnegation, had refused to take the highest 
place in the sect which she had founded. She had 
imprinted on handkerchiefs and papers, by the mere 
imposition of her hand on the white surface, a por- 
trait of some statesman or eminent personage, and 
all the experts in New York had failed to discover 
by what occult art the pictures so produced had 
been engrained into the very substance of the 
paper or linen. She had called into existence 
things which had no existence before. Even in 
one of her visits to England she had caused the 
miraculous transportation of documents from place 
to place. Her very age was not the least of the 
mysteries which surrounded her. There were 



MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THEOSOPHY. 165 

whispers that, though seemingly in the prime of 
life, she had already numbered more than four- 
score years and ten, and that she had discovered, 
or was near to discovering, the secret of eternal 
youth. And when she published her great work, — 
his Unveiled, — in which she claimed to rebuild 
the flimsy fabric of Western science, and to lay the 
broad foundations of a new philosophy and a new 
religion, there were not wanting disciples to ac- 
knowledge her claims. It is true that competent 
persons who had read the book reported that it 
contained only a chaotic apocalypse of ignorance ; 
that the new science was so far without facts, that 
the new philosophy was innocent of metaphysic, 
and that the religion owned no God. But the de- 
ficiencies which the ingenuity of her disciples could 
not supply their credulity was willing to ignore. 
And the authoress, with proud humility, disclaimed 
all honour for herself. She was but the mouthpiece 
of a wisdom higher than her own ; the chosen me- 
dium of saints who dwelt in the far Himalayas, re- 
mote from the errors and strife of the world. And 
when, a few years later, it was found that the busy 
life of New York vexed that serene atmosphere 
which was essential to the due absorption of theo- 
sophic truth, she found in India a ready welcome and 
a more congenial environment for herself and the 
Society. There the Society made rapid progress, 
and soon numbered its adherents by thousands. 
The great bulk of its members were, no doubt, 
natives. But gradually a few Europeans of educa- 



1 66 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

tion and repute were attracted by the new doctrines ; 
amongst others Mr. A. P. Sinnett, at that time 
editor of the Pioneer. It is to him that we owe the 
most orderly and complete exposition of these doc- 
trines. In the Occult World, published in 1881, 
and in Esoteric Buddhism, published in 1883, Mr. 
Sinnett set forth the scientific and philosophic, or 
rather, cosmologic teachings of the new cult. Like 
Madame Blavatsky, he disclaimed for himself all 
credit, except what might be his due for skilful ex- 
position and compilation. He testified only to that 
which he had received from the " Brothers." The 
" Brothers," he explained to us, are men of exalted 
spirituality, and more than mortal wisdom, who 
reside in the mountain fastnesses, as yet undefiled 
by the magnetism of European travellers, of the 
Thibetan Himalayas, and there hand down to the 
new generation the traditional knowledge, enriched 
by additions of their own, which they have received 
from those who preceded them. By the practice 
of a life of austere simplicity, and by the diligent 
cultivation of their spiritual faculties, they have at- 
tained a mastery over the elemental world, an in- 
sight into the processes of nature and the secrets 
of the cosmic order, which the devotees of occi- 
dental science, who proceed by logic and experi- 
ment, and who trust to the gropings of a purblind 
intellect, may never hope to rival. Our European 
thinkers are like blind men who are painfully learn- 
ing to read with their fingers from a child's primer, 
whilst these have eyes to see the universe, past,. 



MA DA ME BLA VA TSK Y A ND THE SOPH Y. 1 6? 

present, and to come. To Mr. Sinnett it had been 
given to learn the alphabet of that transcendent 
language. 

And first, as to the doctrines, which, as Mr. Sin- 
nett is careful to remind us, are wholly independent 
of any extrinsic support from the marvellous 
powers with which the " Brothers " are credited. No 
miracles can attest a revelation. We must judge 
of its truth by the light which is in us. There must 
always be a strange attraction in any authoritative 
teachings on the unseen. And when the teacher 
can graft on the splendours of Eastern phantasy 
the precision and symmetry of European science, it 
is hard to resist the fascination exercised. The 
Brothers had chosen their instrument well. Con- 
tagious enthusiasm, poetic fervour, a lofty meta- 
physic, — Mr. Sinnett had none of these ; but he was 
gifted with a considerable faculty for looking at 
things from a common-sense standpoint. He could 
make the most extravagant mysticism seem matter- 
of-fact. He could write of Manvantaras and Nir- 
vana, and the septenary constitution of man, in 
language which would have been appropriate in a 
treatise on kitchen middens, or the functions of the 
pineal gland. In his lucid prose the vast concep- 
tions of primitive Buddhism were fused with the 
commonplaces of modern science ; and whilst the 
cosmology which resulted from their union dazzled 
by its splendid visions, the precise terminology of 
the writer, and the very poverty of his imagination, 
served to reassure his readers that they were 



1 68 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

listening to the words of truth and soberness. We 
were taught to look back upon this earth and all 
its mighty sisterhood of planets and suns rolling 
onward in infinite space, through cycle after cycle 
in the past. We were shown how, through the per- 
petual flux and reflux of the spiritual and the nat- 
ural, the cosmic evolution was accomplished, and 
the earth grew, through the life of crystal, and 
plant, and brute, to man. We saw how the worlds 
throbbed in vast alternation of systole and diastole, 
and how the tide of human life itself had its ebb 
and flow. And this fugitive human personality — 
the man who works, and loves, and suffers — we 
saw to endure but for a short life on earth, and for 
an age, shorter or longer, in Devachan. Memory 
is then purged away, the eternal spirit puts on a 
new dress, and a new life on earth is begun. And 
so through each succeeding re-incarnation the goal 
of the life preceding becomes the starting-point of 
the life which follows. But outside of all nebular 
vortices, and cosmic evolutions, and geological pro- 
gressions, and beyond the dance of the suns, and 
behind the cycles of time and the sequence of fad- 
ing generations, the man himself endures as an in- 
corruptible, indiscerptible, and imperishable unity. 
But lest the eye should be dimmed and the heart 
grow faint with fear, as the vast panorama of the 
ages revolves before us, Mr. Sinnett was careful to 
explain that the actual number of lives which an 
individual may expect in this particular Manvan- 
tara will be not less than six hundred and eighty- 



MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THEOSOPHY. 1 69 

six, nor more than eight hundred, each with its 
corresponding allotment of Devachan ; and that, as 
we have now only reached the middle of the fourth 
round (out of seven), we have approximately three 
hundred and fifty lives still to the good, and can 
spare time to attend to our immediate business, and 
so avert catastrophe in the critical period of the 
fifth round : the future which awaits us in the com- 
ing Pralaya, and the next ensuing Manvantara, we 
may safely leave to the Dhyan Chohasn. 

But to the Brothers — or, in their language, Ma- 
hatmas — is given not only this transcendent vision 
of the universal flux of things, but also the mastery 
over Akaz, the mysterious world-ether, full of un- 
known and dimly conjectured potencies. Mr. Sin- 
nett gives us a few instances of the marvels effected 
by akasic force. The letters on which his book is 
based reached him by various channels ; sometimes 
they would drop on his desk from the air ; some- 
times they would be discovered in private drawers, 
or enclosed in the covers of official telegrams. At 
other times the Master, Koot Hoomi, preferred to 
write his instructions on the blank spaces of a letter 
as it came through the post, leaving the seal intact. 
Notes were found in cushions and on trees ; a cup 
and saucer were dug up when required at a picnic 
from a wayside bank ; a brooch, long lost, was re- 
constructed from its elements to order. But of all 
the marvels reported, those which most attracted 
the Western mind, whilst they possessed in them- 
selves most verisimilitude, were the apparitions of 



170 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Mahatmas in distant places. Not the adepts only, 
but some of the more advanced pupils also, claimed 
this power of projecting their " astral bodies" to 
the place where they would be. But these phan- 
tasmal visits appeared to stand on a different 
footing from the other marvels alleged. The 
transportation and duplication of objects, and the 
miraculous conveyance of Mahatma letters, bore a 
prima facie resemblance to conjuring tricks, and 
they were apt to occur with disproportionate fre- 
quency in the neighbourhood of Madame Blavatsky. 
It seemed therefore antecedently probable that 
closer investigation might reveal a causal connec- 
tion with her of a kind not unfamiliar to Western 
science. But the occurrence of the apparitions 
seemed to rest on the credible testimony of several 
independent observers, both native and European, 
and to discredit these was to impute fraud, or 
almost imbecile credulity, to those persons. More- 
over, to admit the possibility of the facts attested 
by no means involved an acceptance of the explan- 
ation given. There was no need to assume the 
actual transportation of an astral, or ethereal, or 
akasic body. It was sufficient to suppose that 
some telepathic communication took place between 
the mind of the master and his disciple capable of 
evoking an hallucinatory image. The occurrence 
would thus be referable to the same general causes 
as many spontaneous cases of apparitions which 
had already been brought under the notice of the 
Society for Psychical Research ; and further, we 



MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THEO SOPHY. \J\ 

had investigated a few cases in this country of vol- 
untarily induced hallucinations, which seemed to 
present a parallel sufficiently close to encourage 
further examination of this Indian evidence. Up- 
on these considerations it appeared to the Council 
of the Society that the theosophical phenomena 
presented a prima facie case for investigation, and a 
Committee, of whom the present writer was one, 
was appointed for that purpose in May, 1884. 
After receiving the oral or written evidence of 
several important witnesses, some of them at that 
time resident in England, it seemed to us desirable 
that a fuller investigation should be made on the 
spot, and Mr. R. Hodgson, of St. John's College, 
Cambridge, accordingly proceeded to India in 
November, 1884. Previously to his departure there 
had appeared in the Madras Christian College 
Magazine some letters, of a directly incriminating 
character, alleged to have been written by Madame 
Blavatsky to two confederates. Mr. Hodgson 
was instructed to inquire into the authenticity of 
those letters, as also to examine the evidence 
offered for the physical phenomena, and for the 
astral journeys above described. 

The letters purported to be written by Madame 
Blavatsky to Monsieur and Madame Coulomb, who 
had been respectively librarian and assistant corre- 
sponding secretary at the headquarters of the Theo- 
sophical Society at Adyar, Madras, having been 
introduced into the Society by Madame Blavatsky 
herself. Written in an extraordinary medley of 



172 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

French, English, and occasional Italian, they con- 
tained instructions, readily intelligible through the 
disguise of nicknames, allusions, and colloquial 
brevities, for the carrying out of an elaborate series 
of impostures. If the letters were authentic, there 
could be no doubt that some, at least, of the mar- 
vels which took place in the headquarters at Adyar 
were fraudulently produced, and that the Cou- 
lombs fully merited the honour which they claimed 
for themselves, of having been the accomplices in 
fraud of Madame Blavatsky. It is sufficient to say 
here that, in the unanimous opinion of the two ex- 
perts, Messrs. Netherclift and Sims, and of other 
competent persons who examined these letters, they 
are indisputably the authentic productions of Ma- 
dame Blavatsky. 

The marvels, to the manufacture of which these 
letters related, included apparitions of the Mahat- 
mas, who seem generally to have been personated 
by one of the Coulombs, with the aid of drapery 
and a dummy head — over whose destruction by 
Mons. Coulomb, in a fit of rage and remorse, Ma- 
dame Blavatsky utters a pathetic lament, " Oh, mon 
pauvre Cristofolo ! II est done mort, et vous Favez 
tue ! " The letters bore also upon what are known 
as the Shrine phenomena. The Shrine was a small 
wooden cupboard, placed against the wall of the 
" occult " room at headquarters, and it formed the 
ordinary means of communication with the Brothers, 
notes being. placed in it for transmission to Thibet, 
and the answers being received in some cases almost 



MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THEOSOPHY. 1 73 

instantaneously. It will be sufficient to quote here 
a description by an eye-witness of one of the most 
famous of the miracles of the Shrine. General 
Morgan, a member of the Theosophical Society, 
writes thus in the supplement to the Theosophist 
for December, 1883 : 

" In the month of August, having occasion to come to Ma- 
dras in the absence of Colonel Olcott and Madame Blavatsky, 
I visited the headquarters of the Theosophical Society to see 
a wonderful painting of the Mahatma Koot Hoomi kept there 
in a Shrine and daily attended to by the Chelas. On arrival 
at the house I was told that the lady, Madame Coulomb, who 
had charge of the keys of the Shrine, was absent, so I awaited 
her return. She came home in about an hour, and we pro- 
ceeded up-stairs to open the Shrine and inspect the picture. 
Madame Coulomb advanced quickly to unlock the double 
doors of the hanging cupboard, and hurriedly threw them 
open. In so doing she had failed to observe that a china tray 
inside was on the edge of the Shrine and leaning against one 
of the doors, and when they were opened, down fell the china 
tray, smashed to pieces on the hard chunam floor. Whilst 
Madame Coulomb was wringing her hands and lamenting this 
unfortunate accident to a valuable article of Madame Blavat- 
sky's, and her husband was on his knees collecting the debris y 
I remarked it would be necessary to obtain some china cement 
and thus try to restore the fragments. Thereupon M. Cou- 
lomb was despatched for the same. The broken pieces were 
carefully collected and placed, tied in a cloth, within the 
Shrine, and the doors locked. Mr. Damodar K. Mavalankar, 
the Joint Recording Secretary of the Society, was opposite the 
Shrine, seated on a chair, about ten feet away from it, when, 
after some conversation, an idea occurred to me to which I im- 
mediately gave expression. I remarked that if the Brothers 
considered it of sufficient importance, they would easily re- 
store the broken articles ; if not, they would leave it to the 
culprits to do so, the best way they could. Five minutes had 



174 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

scarcely elapsed after this remark when Mr. Damodar, who 
during this time seemed wrapped in a reverie, exclaimed, ' I 
think there is an answer.' The doors were opened, and, sure 
enough, a small note was found on the shelf of the Shrine — on 
opening which we read : * To the small audience present. Ma- 
dame Coulomb has occasion to assure herself that the devil is 
neither so black nor so wicked as he is generally represented ; 
the mischief is easily repaired.' 

" On opening the cloth the china tray was found to be whole 
and perfect ; not a trace of the breakage to be found on it ! 
I at once wrote across the note, stating that I was present when 
the tray was broken and immediately restored, dated and signed 
it, so that there should be no mistake in the matter. It may be 
here observed that Madame Coulomb believes that the many 
things of a wonderful nature that occur at the headquarters 
may be the work of the devil — hence the playful remark of 
the Mahatma who came to her rescue." ' 

This is General Morgan's almost contemporary 
account of the miracle. In the Blavatsky-Coulomb 
correspondence occur the following letters, undated, 
but written apparently a few days before the occur- 
rence above described : 

" C'est je crois cela que vous devez avoir. Tachez done si 
vous croyez que cela va reussir d'avoir plus d'audience que nos 
imbeciles domestiques seulement. Cela merite la peine — Car la 
soucoupe d'Adyar pourrait devenir historique comme la tasse 
de Simla. Soubbaya ici et je n'ai guere le temps d'ecrire a 
mon aise, a vous mes honneurs et remerciments. 

[Signed] " H. P. B." 

This letter is said by Madame Coulomb to have 
contained the following enclosure : 

" To the small audience present as witness. Now Madame 
Coulomb has occasion to assure herself that the devil is neither 
1 Proc. S. P. R., vol. iii., pp. 218-19. 



MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THEOSOPHY. 1 75 

as black nor as wicked as he is generally represented. The 
mischief is easily repaired. — K. H." 

" Vendredi. 
" Ma chere Madame Coulomb et Marquis, 1 — Voici le mo- 
ment de nous montrer — ne nous cachons pas. Le General part 
pour affaires a Madras et y sera lundi et y passera deux jours. 
II est President de la Societe ici et veut voir le shri?ie. C'est 
probable qu'il fera une question quelconque et peutetre se 
bornera-t-il a regarder. Mais il est sur qu'il s'attend a un 
phenomene, car il me l'a dit. Dans le premier cas suppliez 
K. H. que vous voyez tous les jours ou Cristofolo de soutenir 
l'honneur de famille. Dites lui done qu'une fleur suffirait, et 
que si le pot de chambre cassait sous le poids de la curiosite il 
serait bon de le remplacer en ce moment. Damn les autres. 
Celui-la vaut son pesant d'or. Per Famor del Dio ou de qui 
vous voudrez ne manquez pas cette occasion, car elle ne se repe- 
tera plus. Je ne suis pas la, et c'est cela qui est beau. Je me 
fie a vous et je vous supplie de ne pas me desappointer car 
tous mes projets et mon avenir avec vous tous — (car je vais 
avoir une maison ici pour passer les six mois de l'annee et elle 
sera a. moi a la Societe, et vous ne souffrirez plus de la chaleur 
comme vous le faites, si j'y reussis). 

" Voici le moment de faire quelque chose. Tournez lui la 
tete au General et il fera tout pour vous, surtout si vous etes 
avec lui au moment du Christophe. Je vous envoie un en cas 
— e vi saluto. Le Colonel vient ici du 20 au 25. Je revien- 
drai vers le milieu de Septembre. 

" A vous de cceur, 

" Luna Melanconica." 2 

We may note here a judicious economy of the 
supernatural ; signs and wonders are not to be 
lavished to little profit on those who believe already. 
But Madame Blavatsky is, perhaps, unduly severe 

1 Marquis and Marquise were names given by Madame Blavatsky to M. 
and Madame Coulomb. 2 Ibid., p. 212. 



I76 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

upon her " domestic imbeciles," who appear to have 
played their parts upon the occasion so well that 
General Morgan, a year or two later, still believed 
in the genuineness of the miracle, and wrote a more 
detailed account, to prove that it was miraculous. 

It may be added that Mr. Hodgson was permit- 
ted to examine the saucer in question ; that he 
ascertained that Madame Coulomb had made pur- 
chases at a store in Madras on July 3, 1883, and 
that two articles of the kind had actually been sold 
on that day at the cost of 2 rupees 8 annas the 
pair — a quite inconsiderable outlay, it will be ad- 
mitted, for a miracle of this magnitude. 

The Shrine itself had been destroyed by the 
Theosophists two or three months before Mr. 
Hodgson arrived in India. By the interrogation, 
however, of a large number of persons, native and 
European, and by a careful inspection of its former 
site, he was enabled to give a tolerably clear de- 
scription of the Shrine and its surroundings, which 
is illustrated by diagrams in his Report. Briefly, 
the Shrine was fastened against the party wall be- 
tween the "occult" room and Madame Blavatsky's 
bedroom ; in the wall immediately behind it a win- 
dow had formerly existed. The window had been 
built up level with the general surface of the wall 
on the "occult" side, but remained as a deep recess 
on the other side of the wall. This recess was at 
first used as a wardrobe by Madame Blavatsky. 
Afterwards, when this arrangement appeared ob- 
jectionable, the recess was closed in by a wooden 



MADAME BLAVATSKY AXD THEOSOPHY. 1 77 

framework filled with bricks, leaving, however, a 
hollow space in the thickness of the wall, and a 
sideboard was placed in front of it. In the back 
of the Shrine was a sliding panel, hidden by a 
mirror ; in the wall against which it rested was a 
corresponding hole, hidden by the Shrine ; between 
this wall and the brick framework was a hollow 
space, one foot in depth and about eight feet high ; 
in the brick framework there was an aperture large 
enough to admit a man's body ; and the sideboard 
which concealed this aperture from view possessed 
also a sliding panel at the back. It remains only 
to add that the more advanced initiates so strin- 
gently enjoined on their fellow-disciples the utmost 
reverence for the Shrine, that the majority of the 
native members durst not approach within some 
feet, and that the Europeans respected its sanctity 
and avoided all sacrilegious handling of it. 

Another phenomenon of frequent occurrence in 
the vicinity of Madame Blavatsky was the myste- 
rious precipitation of letters in one of the well- 
known Mahatma handwritings, addressed to some 
one present, and having generally some bearing on 
the subject of conversation at the moment. Mr. 
Hodgson was so fortunate as to witness a phenom- 
enon of this kind in the presence, not indeed of 
the high-priestess herself, but of her right trusty 
friends and servants, M. and Madame Coulomb. 
Mr. Hodgson wrote from Madras on January 9, 
1885: 

" This morning I called upon the Coulombs, who are living 



178 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

at the house of Mrs. Dyer in St. Thome. I conversed a short 
time with M. Coulomb before Madame Coulomb appeared. 
In the course of the conversation that followed. I remarked, 
concerning certain cases of premonition, that I had no satis- 
factory theory at present to account for them. At this mo- 
ment something white appeared, touching my hair, and fell on 
the floor. It was a letter. I picked it up. It was addressed 
to myself. M. and Madame Coulomb were sitting near me 
and in front of me. I had observed no motion on their part 
which could account for the appearance of the letter. Ex- 
amining the ceiling as I stood I could detect no flaw ; it ap- 
peared intact. On opening the letter, I found it referred to 
the conversation which had just taken place. I transcribe 
the words : 

' ' Because the existing cause of to-day foretells the effect of 
to-morrow — a bud assures us beforehand the full-blown rose 
of to-morrow ; on seeing a fine field of corn in which are 
buried eggs of locusts, we are to foresee that that corn will 
never enter the granary ; by the appearance of consumptive 
father and scrofulous mother a sickly child can be foretold. 
Now all these causes, which bring to us these effects, have in 
their turn their effects themselves, and so, ad infinitum j and 
as nothing is lost in Nature, but remains impressed in the 
akasa, so the acute perception of the seer beginning at the 
source arrives at the result with exactitude. 

" 'The New Adept, Columbus.' " 1 

The ceiling of the room in which this took place 
was supported by a main beam and several trans- 
verse beams, the intervening spaces being filled by 
blocks of wood held together by mortar. The 
mortar, M. Coulomb explained, had been scraped 
out of one of the interstices, so that the letter could 
be inserted. A piece of thread was passed loosely 
twice round the letter, and the end placed in the 

1 Ibid., pp. 249, 250. 



MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THEOSOPHY. 1 79 

hands of an accomplice outside the room, who, on 
a given signal (a call to the dog), pulled the thread 
away, and so caused the fall of the letter. The 
subject of the conversation had, of course, been led 
up to. 

The ceiling of Madame Blavatsky's room had 
the construction above described ; other ceilings 
appear to have been covered with a ceiling cloth 
having a slit in it ; or to have been composed of 
loosely fitting boards, with a trap for the letter in 
a loft above — as in the guest-room at Crow's Nest 
Bungalow, where Mr. Sinnett received an import- 
ant missive from Koot Hoomi. 

The above may be taken as fair specimens of 
the power of the adepts over the material world. 
We come now to the astral journeys. The ac- 
counts given of the apparitions of the Mahatmas 
themselves appeared to us to possess little eviden- 
tial value, both from the conditions under which 
they appeared, and from the character of the prin- 
cipal witnesses. Moreover, the bodily existence of 
the Mahatmas seemed to be in no wise adequately 
proved. But there were the astral journeys of Mr. 
Damodar, an advanced Chela, or pupil, the evid- 
ence for which seemed to possess superior co- 
gency. One of these journeys is thus described by 
Colonel Olcott, in his evidence given before the 
Committee 1 : 

"On the night of the 17th November, 1883, I was in the 
train on my way from Meerut, N. W. P., to Lahore. Two per- 

1 Ibid., p. 236. 



l8o STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

sons were in the carriage with me — Mr. Damodar, and another 
Hindu named Narain Swamy Naidu, who were asleep on their 
beds' at either side of the saloon compartment. I myself was 
reading a book by the light of the lamp. Damodar had been 
moving upon his bed from time to time, showing that he was 
not physically asleep, as the other one was. Presently Damo- 
dar came to me and asked what time it was. I told him that 
it was a few minutes to 6 p.m. He said : ' I have just been to 
headquarters,' — meaning in the double, — ' and an accident has 
happened to Madame Blavatsky.' I inquired if it was any- 
thing serious. He said that he could not tell me ; but she 
had tripped her foot in the carpet, he thought, and fallen 
heavily upon her right knee. ... I therefore tore a piece 
of paper out of some book, and on the spot made a memoran- 
dum, which was signed by myself and the second Hindu." 

The memorandum runs as follows : 

" In train at Nagul Station, S. P. and D. Railway, at 5.55 
p.m., 1 7/1 1/83. D. K. M. says he has just been (in Sukshma 
Sarira) to headquarters. H. P. B. has just tripped in carpet 
and hurt right knee. Had just taken K. H.'s portrait from 
Shrine. Heard her mention names of General and Mrs. Mor- 
gan. Thinks they are there. Saw nobody but H. P. B., but 
felt several others. 

" The next station reached by the train was Saharanpur, 
where a halt of half an hour for supper occurred. I went 
directly to the telegraph office, and sent a despatch to Madame 
Blavatsky as near as I can remember in the following words : 
' What accident happened at headquarters at about 6 o'clock ? 
Answer to Lahore.' " 

To this Madame Blavatsky telegraphed in reply : 

" Nearly broke right leg, tumbling from bishop's chair, drag- 
ging Coulomb, frightening Morgans. Damodar startled us." 

Colonel Olcott added : 



MA DA ME BLA J r A TSK Y A A 'D THE SOPH Y. 1 8 1 

" The presence of General and Mrs. Morgan at headquarters 
is confirmed by this telegram, and before that we travellers 
had no knowledge of their having come down from the 

Nilgiris." 

And to this remark Madame Blavatsky, when 
she read through Colonel Olcott's depositions in 
proof, appended the following note : " They had 
just arrived from the Nilgherry Hills. — H. P. 
Blavatsky." If Colonel Olcott was correct in his 
statement that the presence of the Morgans at 
headquarters was unexpected, it appeared to us 
improbable that the coincidence of Madame Bla- 
vatsky's accident and Mr. Damodar's account of 
the matter could be due to collusion. The inci- 
dent would then fall under a category with which 
we were already familiar — thought transference at 
a distance, or telepathy. The two actors in this 
episode were intimately associated in the work of 
Theosophy, and it seemed possible that an accident 
of the kind occurring to one of them should prove 
an occasion for the transmission of a telepathic 
impulse, such as we believed on other evidence to 
occur at times of crisis between persons in close 
sympathy with one another. Mr. Hodgson, how- 
ever, learned from General and Mrs. Morgan that, 
so far from having " just arrived," they had been 
at headquarters for a week when this occurred ; 
that they had been specially summoned thither by 
a Mahatma letter ; and that even so they had not 
been actual witnesses of the accident, having been 
in another part of the house at the time. 



1 82 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

In another case of the kind, occurring a few days 
previously, in which Mr. Damodar was again the 
principal figure, the evidence against pre-arrange- 
ment by collusion between him and Madame Bla- 
vatsky rested mainly upon Colonel Olcott's positive 
statement, that his movements were not known at 
headquarters beforehand. In the event it was 
proved, by a comparison of Colonel Olcott's diary 
with the antecedently published programme of his. 
tour in the Theosophist, and with other published 
evidence, that every detail of the scene described 
could have been anticipated at headquarters for 
some days or even weeks beforehand, and it seems 
probable that the "astral journeys" of Mr. Damo- 
dar, with their attesting telegrams, were in both 
cases preconcerted by that gentleman with Madame: 
Blavatsky before he left to accompany the unsus- 
pecting Colonel Olcott on his tour. 

That the phenomenal basis of Theosophy should 
thus disappear upon a strict examination was per- 
haps neither unexpected nor altogether unwelcome 
to some of the more intelligent adherents of the 
doctrine. Madame Blavatsky's nomadic life, and 
her past record as a Spiritualist, must have ap- 
peared to them, as to us, suspicious circumstances, 
and it might seem not improbable that to a woman 
of her unscrupulous judgment fraud would be jus- 
tified in the measure of its success. She had, it 
was presumed, a mission to preach certain saving 
truths, and if her gospel was too subtle to be read- 
ily apprehended by those to whom it was preached,, 



MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THEO SOPHY. 1 83 

it might well be that she would not pause for any 
over-nice scrutiny of the means to be employed in 
the propaganda. If the crude materialism of the 
West refused to receive the message in its meta- 
physical simplicity, the apostles of a neoteric 
Buddhism must devise other methods to enforce 
its acceptance. To those who will believe only in 
what they can touch and see, arguments must be 
presented of a visible and palpable kind. Haply 
the truth which is enwrapped in the fictitious 
symbols will so be more readily discerned. By 
reasoning of this kind it appeared to some that 
Madame Blavatsky might have sanctified her im- 
postures. Of course this theory involved the Ma- 
hatmas in connivance with fraud. But so might a 
scientific Pope view with approval the miracles of 
Lourdes, and refrain from disturbing comment on 
the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius. And 
other circumstances had come to light, which proved 
that, whatever their wisdom and spirituality, the 
adepts fell short of the European standard of hon- 
our. Koot Hoomi himself had been convicted of 
gross and impudent plagiarism, and had, after a 
delay of some months, offered an explanation, 
which, in the opinion of many, served only to ag- 
gravate his original fault. In brief, it had already 
become evident that the Master, if a saint and a 
scholar, was something less than a gentleman. 

It seemed still possible, therefore, that there 
might be real Mahatmas with an authentic message 
to deliver. Now the evidence for the existence of 



1 84 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

the Mahatmas rested ultimately on their writings ; 
for no reliance could, obviously, be placed upon the 
testimony of discredited witnesses, who professed 
to have seen — generally in the dusk of the even- 
ing — the phantoms of the " Brothers " walking 
many yards off on the terrace, or standing in the 
balcony at headquarters ; or who had knelt spell- 
bound with awe under a shower of Thibetan roses 
thrown by the Master's hand. Nor did the identity 
of the undeniably human forms, purporting to be 
those of Mahatmas, which had been seen by one 
or two European witnesses, rest upon any surer 
foundation. It was, therefore, of the first import- 
ance to examine the writings minutely. There 
was no lack of material. The greater part of the 
Occult World had been founded on letters from 
Koot Hoomi, and they had been freely lavished 
amongst the faithful, and amongst those who 
lingered in the borderland of faith and doubt. As 
the inquiry into other phenomena proceeded, it be- 
came, from external evidence, increasingly probable 
that the Koot Hoomi scriptures also were the handi- 
work of Madame Blavatsky. But the two English 
experts, to whom some specimens of the later Koot 
Hoomi writings were submitted, unhesitatingly re- 
pudiated that theory. Mr. Hodgson, however, 
took pains to collect from every accessible source 
a complete series of Koot Hoomi writings of vari- 
ous dates ; and his elaborate and minute comparison 
of these with the acknowledged writings of Ma- 
dame Blavatsky served to establish beyond reason- 



MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THEOSOPHY. 1 85 

able doubt their common authorship. For the 
details of his argument and for facsimiles of the 
various writings, the reader must refer to the 
Report itself. It is sufficient here to state that the 
earliest specimens of the Koot Hoomi writings and 
the contemporary writings of Madame Blavatsky 
possessed some very marked features in common, 
but that gradually the resemblances disappeared, 
by the elimination of certain characteristic forms 
from Madame Blavatsky's ordinary hand, and by 
the concurrent development of more distinctive 
and specialised characters in the Koot Hoomi 
scriptures. The formation of certain letters re- 
mained to the last identical in the two series. It 
may be added that the professional experts, after 
examining the fuller and more representative se- 
lection of documents, retracted the opinion which 
they originally expressed, and concurred in that 
arrived at independently by Mr. Hodgson. There 
are, moreover, various marked peculiarities of 
grammar, idiom, and spelling common to the two 
writings. 1 

With the proof of the forgery of the Koot 
Hoomi documents, the last shred of evidence for 
the Theosophical position vanishes. It is not, of 
course, possible in the compass of this chapter to 
furnish a tithe of the accumulated proof of impost- 
ure. The time would fail to tell of the Simla cup, 
of the famous plaster plaque incident, of brooches 
and rings formed out of the Akaz> of the " Vega" 

1 S. P. R., vol. iii., pp. 306-7. 



1 86 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

letter, the "Sassoon" telegram, and the " astral 
bells." Nor can we stay to speak of the apocalyptic 
hand of Mr. T. Vigiaraghava Charloo, " commonly 
called Ananda " ; of the too frequent presence of 
the serviceable Babula ; of the mythical existence 
of Ramalinga Deb, and the many-named person- 
ality of the ingenuous Babajee ; of the childlike 
simplicity of Colonel Olcott, and the faithfulness 
through good and evil report of Dr. Hartmann 
and the Board of Control ; of the 'prentice for- 
geries of Mr. Damodar K. Mavalankar; and of all 
the multiform successes in the same line of Madame 
Blavatsky herself. And we must, with more re- 
luctance, forbear to discuss the motives which Mr. 
Hodgson imputes to that lady, and the not incon- 
siderable part which he assigns to her in the 
international drama. 

It remains but to say a few words in explanation 
of the attitude assumed by the Society for Psychical 
Research. In entering upon this inquiry we were 
led away by no craving for mysticism, nor buoyed 
up by the hope of introducing into Europe the lost 
secrets of Oriental magic. When, however, we 
found ourselves confronted with evidence for 
occurrences in India, analogous in some respects to 
those which had already formed the subject of our 
inquiries in England, and when we found that some 
of these occurrences were vouched for by witnesses 
of good repute and good intelligence in other 
matters, we held that we should not be justified in 
summarily dismissing their evidence. It did, in- 



MADAME BLAVATSKY AND TH EO SOPHY. 1 87 

deed, seem to some of us probable that the alleged 
physical marvels would prove to be fraudulent ; 
but it seemed also not impossible that the accounts 
which had reached us of the astral journeys might 
prove to be slightly distorted versions of actual 
occurrences, analogous to those cases of thought 
transference with which we were already familiar. 
Moreover, to reject the evidence for those occur- 
rences was, as it then seemed to us, to impute fraud 
to Colonel Olcott as well as to Mr. Damodar. 
Colonel Olcott we believed to be an honourable 
man, and Mr. Damodar was credibly alleged to be a 
Hindu of high caste, who had voluntarily sacrificed 
his patrimony on account of his connection with the 
Theosophical Society, and who had unquestionably 
been, in the early years of the Society, himself the 
recipient of many of the signs and wonders reported. 
It seemed unlikely that one who began as a dupe 
should end as an accomplice in imposture. In the 
event it has proved that there was fraud ; and we 
are constrained to believe that the transformation 
above referred to in the attitude of Mr. Damodar 
was less difficult than we had supposed. If Col- 
onel Olcott's honesty has not been impugned, the 
limits of his credulity have proved elastic beyond 
our anticipation. 

In fact, many of the leading members of the 
Theosophic cult present, in the light of this inquiry, 
a pleasantly ambiguous blend of charlatanry and 
simplicity. 

Since the publication, in 1885, of Mr. Hodgson's 



1 88 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Report, upon which the foregoing account of Ma- 
dame Blavatsky and the Theosophical movement 
is based, much additional evidence has been pub- 
lished. In the first place, we have the translation 
of a series of letters written from America by Ma- 
dame Blavatsky to Mr. Aksakoff. We have here 
the. whole early history of the Theosophical Society, 
told in her own inimitable style by its foundress. 
The series begin in October, 1874, with a letter 
describing the spirit materialisations at the Eddy 
brothers' house, and the writer's meeting there with 
Colonel Olcott. It goes on to speak of the eleven 
millions of Spiritualists at the last census in the 
United States, "which have already grown to 
eighteen millions, almost 50 per cent." (Madame 
was always a little vague in her arithmetic), and of 
the writer's own adhesion to the faith — " I have 
now been a Spiritualist for more than ten years, 
and now all my life is devoted to the doctrine." 
Then came, at an inopportune moment, the Katie 
King exposure, which made Spiritualism less popu- 
lar on the other side of the Atlantic. Madame 
Blavatsky began by denouncing the exposure as 
" neither more nor less than a plot (now almost 
proved) of the Protestant Jesuitical Society called 
the Young Men's Christian Association ! " (Ten 
years later, the same Madame Blavatsky, in a new 
role, was protesting that another exposure, in which 
she was more directly concerned, was due to a con- 
spiracy on the part of certain Christian mission- 
aries, who had — as again was " almost proved " — 



MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THEO SOPHY. 1 89 

paid 40,000 rupees to suborn false witnesses.) 
Shortly after we read of a secession from the or- 
thodox American Spiritualists, and the establish- 
ment of a new organ, the Spiritual Scientist. Then 
again we hear much of the Hermetic philosophy 
and of the Kabbala and of Paracelsus ; of the fruits 
of Madame's observations in past journeyings in 
Egypt, Assyria, Siam, Cambodia, Mexico. Then 
we are enabled to trace how, by stern necessity, 
under the pressure of the environment, Spiritualism 
was gradually metamorphosed into Theosophy, 
ghosts into astral bodies, spiritual phenomena into 
manifestations of the occult power of the human 
mind ; how finally Madame from a medium evolved 
into a Chela, John King with his saucer-shaped cap 
became the Mahatma Morya with his turban ; and 
the centre of the spiritual universe shifted from 
the seance room to the Thibetan Himalayas. 

But an even more important document is fur- 
nished by Mr. SolovyofTs account of his intercourse 
with Madame Blavatsky in the years 1884-6, and 
of her final confession to him of the nature of the 
occult power which she exercised. 1 

Mr. Solovyoff is a Russian of good social posi- 
tion, and an author of some repute. At the time 
when his narrative begins, May, 1884, ne was stay- 
ing in Paris, studying mystic and occult literature, 
and planning to write on " the rare, but, in my 

1 A Modern Priestess of 1st s, by V. S. Solovyoff, abridged and translated 
from the Russian, on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research, by Dr. 
Walter Leaf. London, Longmans & Co., 1895. (With an appendix con- 
taining letters of Madame Blavatsky.) 



190 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

opinion, real manifestations of the imperfectly in- 
vestigated spiritual powers of man." Quite oppor- 
tunely, when thus engaged, he came across a recent 
book of Madame Blavatsky's, and a copy of the 
Matin containing a notice of her arrival in Paris. 
Having obtained an introduction from a friend at 
St. Petersburg, Mr. Solovyoff called a few days 
later. He found Madame Blavatsky lodged in a 
small, poorly furnished apartment, in a long, mean 
street, and was at first repelled by the " plain, old, 
earthy-coloured face" of the Prophetess herself. 
But they were both Russians, and in a strange 
land ; Mr. Solovyoff received a frank and kindly 
greeting, and in a few minutes found himself talk- 
ing as to an old friend. 

Their first interview, whilst productive of much 
high spiritual converse, was not wholly barren of 
"phenomena." Madame Blavatsky left the room 
for a few minutes — to attend to some domestic 
duty, as she explained, — and shortly after her re- 
turn the silvery peal of the famous astral bells was 
heard in the air. A few days later, after receiving 
an assurance that no religious dogma was involved, 
and that the study of Oriental literature was the 
chief object aimed at, Mr. Solovyoff was initiated 
in due form into the Theosophical Society. Shortly 
afterwards, he made the acquaintance of Colonel 
Olcott and the celebrated turban given to him in 
New York by an astral visitant from the Himalayas. 

A few days later Mr. Solovyoff was himself privi- 
leged to witness a manifestation of a remarkable 



MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THEOSOPHY. 191 

kind. He called upon Madame Blavatsky by ap- 
pointment one morning. There were present Ma- 
dame Blavatsky, her sister, Madame Jelihovsky, 
and others. To them thus assembled there came 
a ring at the outer door. The door was opened 
by the serviceable Babula, Madame Blavatsky's 
Hindu servant, who was seen by SolovyofT to 
take a letter from the postman's hand, and lay it, 
securely sealed, on the table. The letter was for 
Miss X., an elderly lady staying in the house, 
who had not yet left her room. It occurred to 
Madame Blavatsky that the letter, thus unexpect- 
edly introduced, afforded an excellent opportunity 
for a test. She placed the unopened letter against 
her forehead and slowly wrote down its contents, 
uttering them aloud at the same time, amidst ex- 
pressions of scepticism from Madame Jelihovsky. 
Irritated no doubt by this wanton display of domes- 
tic unbelief, the Prophetess vouchsafed further 
proofs of her power. With a red pencil she drew 
on the paper a theosophical symbol, and at the 
same time underlined — " obviously with a great 
effort of will " — a word in her copy of the letter. 
Miss X. then came in and read the letter in their 
presence. The contents of the letter were identi- 
cal with the copy made by Madame Blavatsky : 
even the theosophical sign and the underlined word 
occurred in their proper place in the original. 

This phenomenon appears to have considerably 
impressed Solovyoff. Some other miracles, how- 
ever, were not so successful : but he still continued 



I92 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

on friendly terms with Madame Blavatsky, and 
appears to have been regarded by her as a likely 
convert. 

Finally, in the late summer or autumn of 1885, 
Mr. Solovyoff went to Wurzburg at Madame's 
invitation. He found her alone, save for one Hin- 
du attendant, in ill-health, and depressed by the 
recent publication of Mr. Hodgson's Report. A 
phenomenon which she attempted with the unskil- 
ful co-operation of poor Babajee resulted in a ludi- 
crous fiasco. She was alone, and seems to have felt 
the need of sympathy and counsel. At last an 
accident precipitated the crisis. Solovyoff went by 
Madame's invitation to get a photograph from a 
drawer, and found there a packet of the Chinese 
envelopes already familiar to him, in which letters 
" astrally " conveyed from Thibet had been wont to 
appear. Then came the dramatic moment. Ma- 
dame Blavatsky unbosomed herself completely. 
" What is one to do," she said, " when in order to 
rule men it is necessary to deceive them " ; when 
they will not accept even the doctrine of his Un- 
veiled without the sanction of miracles ; when their 
very stupidity invites trickery, for " almost invari- 
ably the more simple, the more silly, and the more 
gross the phenomenon, the more likely it is to suc- 
ceed" ? Then followed much more about the im- 
becility of her dupes, and of the world in general, 
and something about the syndicate of scribes who 
wrote the celebrated Koot Hoomi letters ; of Ol- 
cott's blundering but well-intentioned assistance in 



MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THEO SOPHY. 1 93 

"phenomena," and his acquittal by the S. P. R. of 
anything worse than stupidity — a verdict which 
Madame seems to have regarded as a personal in- 
sult. The strange interview terminated with an 
exhibition of the "astral bell," and an invitation to 
SolovyofT to co-operate in the manufacture of Koot 
Hoomi letters. 

On the same day there followed a second inter- 
view, in which Madame Blavatsky tried by various 
means to obliterate the impression which she had 
made. First, she alleged that it was a black ma- 
gician, and not she herself, who had spoken through 
her mouth ; then, that the Master had designed to 
try the faith of his would-be disciple. Next, she 
used alternate threats and promises. Finally, she 
sent to SolovyofT an extraordinary document head- 
ed, My Confession. 

Mr. SolovyofT contented himself, at the time, 
with laying before the Theosophical Society in 
Paris the proofs thus acquired of Madame Blavat- 
sky's fraud. It was not until 1892, after her death, 
that he published his narrative to the world. 

Of the later history of the Theosophical move- 
ment, and of the revelations made by Mr. Ed- 
mund Garrett in Isis very much Unveiled, it is not 
necessary to speak here. And it would be rash 
to prophesy even now — notwithstanding all the 
damning evidence of fraud, notwithstanding the 
loss of the unique personality of the foundress — 
that the movement is near dissolution. To most 
men who have given themselves over to a false 



194 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

belief there comes a time when the ears are deaf 
and the eyes are closed and the heart is hardened, 
so that they will not believe even the testimony of 
the false prophet against himself. For are there 
not, as we have seen, black magicians and other 
powers of darkness who may transform themselves 
into the likeness of angels of light ? With such 
men and against such a contention, argument is no 
longer even possible. Decipiantur. 



CHAPTER VII. 

EXPERIMENTAL THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 

THE first hints of the possibility of the com- 
munication of ideas without the inter- 
mediary of the normal channels of sense appear 
in the writings of the mesmerists in the early part 
of this century. In particular we find scattered 
through the pages of the English writers, Esdaile, 
Elliotson, Gregory, and their contemporaries, vari- 
ous observations of what they called " community 
of sensation " between the operator and his mes- 
merised subject. But none of the earlier writers 
appear to have realised the full significance of the 
facts observed ; they gave their attention by prefer- 
ence, on the one hand, to the more practical side 
of mesmerism, the induction of sleep and various 
healing processes ; and on the other to various 
novel observations which seemed to open up a wider 
vista of discovery, the alleged phenomena of clair- 
voyance, obsession, and spirit communication. So 
that these indications of a new mode of sensory 
affection appeared by comparison humble and un- 
attractive, and remained sterile ; until, mainly as 
an indirect consequence of the discovery of chloro- 
form, mesmerism and all its attendant marvels 

195 



I96 STL- DIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

passed for a time into disuse and disrepute. At a 
later period public exhibitions of " thought-read- 
ing " and the introduction of the " willing" game 
brought the question once more to the front. 
There can be little doubt that to the wide interest 
excited by these performances we owe the redis- 
covery of phenomena which, whatever may prove 
to be their ultimate interpretation, appear to indi- 
cate a new mode of thought-transmission. The 
drawing-room amusement of fifteen or twenty 
years ago has played the part of alchemy in the 
birth of our new chemistry. In suggesting such 
an analogy, however, it is important to note an 
essential difference. When the alchemist reduced 
some metallic oxide in his crucible he had in fact, 
however erroneous his interpretation of what he 
saw, assisted at a genuine chemical reaction. But 
the willing game and the thought-reading of the 
platform were not ordinarily demonstrations of 
genuine "thought-transference" at all. The suc- 
cess attained in such exhibitions is to be attributed 
to the sometimes unconscious, sometimes skilful 
interpretation by the performer of various hints 
given in look, gesture, or barely perceptible move- 
ment, by the unwitting agent or spectator. It is 
not until we have excluded all contact or other 
normal means of communication between " agent " 
and " percipient," — in other words, until we have 
eliminated the very conditions upon which the 
platform conjurer depends for his success,— that we 
have any justification for invoking a new mode of 



EXPERIMENTAL THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 1 97 

sensory communication. Our modern alchemist 
did but shape the crucible, and left it to others, 
working on the hint so given, to purge the silver. 

In considering the evidence upon which the hy- 
pothesis of a new mode of sensory or super-sensory 
communication is founded, we have to guard 
against errors of another kind than those which 
render nugatory the testimony to the physical 
phenomena with which the last five chapters have 
been concerned. In most experiments in thought- 
transference, the opportunities for trickery are lim- 
ited by the conditions, and the grosser inducements 
to fraud are absent in cases where the subjects are 
unpaid. Of course all experimental results assume 
the good faith of the experimenters themselves. 
There are, no doubt, circumstances in which the 
assumption would be unjustified. As already 
indicated, there are cases where we have detected, 
or seen good reason to suspect, trickery on the 
part of persons whose position should have placed 
them above suspicion. But in adults, cases of dis- 
interested deception are probably rare. Indeed 
the whole of our social structure is based on the 
assumption that normally constituted men and 
women will not cheat or lie without sufficient 
motive ; without, that is, some hope of gain, not 
necessarily, indeed, of a material kind. The glory 
of perpetrating a successful hoax would no doubt 
for some minds constitute a sufficient motive. In- 
stances of such hoaxes have occurred in other 
fields ; and in the course of our researches we have 



198 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

met with several cases of wilful deception, and 
have seen reason to suspect it occasionally when 
direct proof was not possible. But the perpetrators 
of such hoaxes are for the most part young persons ; 
or have carried into later life some of the defects of 
immaturity. What might be a pardonable mysti- 
fication in a party of schoolboys or of girls in their 
teens would be dishonourable — and I may add 
rarely credible — in the same persons when they had 
reached their full moral and intellectual stature. 

However, apart from the extreme hypothesis of 
a conspiracy amongst the experimenters themselves 
to present the world with fraudulent results of a 
singularly tame and uninspiring kind, fraud is 
scarcely a possible explanation of any of the ex- 
periments on which a careful investigator would 
place reliance ; and for this reason. Results which 
are capable of being explained by collusion between 
agent and percipient stand self-condemned. The 
real danger against which our experimenters have 
to guard is that the agent may give information to 
the percipient unconsciously, and the precautions 
which are sufficient to guard against this source of 
error are necessarily more than sufficient as a rule 
to preclude collusion. In the accounts which follow 
of various typical sets of experiments the pre- 
cautions taken are described. It will suffice, here, 
therefore, to point out that we are bound to assume, 
when dealing with hypnotised persons, a preter- 
normal activity of the special senses. It is well 
known that the hypnotic can frequently hear sounds 



EXPERIMEN TA L THO UGH T- TEA NSFERENCE. 1 99 

which are quite inaudible to those around him who 
are concentrating their attention in the very effort 
to hear ; and there are cases on record in which 
the vision of the hypnotic has been proved greatly 
to exceed the normal limits. 1 But it will probably 
be conceded that even a hypnotised hyperaesthetic 
subject cannot see behind his back ; nor hear 
through walls or ceilings a whisper inaudible to the 
straining ears on the other side ; nor catch the 
murmur of the agent's quickened pulses at a 
distance of half a mile. 2 One more precaution — 
desirable though not essential — should be noted. 
In our own experiments we have always been care- 
ful, so far as circumstances permitted, to draw cards 
or diagrams, or select a number, at random, so as 
to avoid the disturbing operation of association of 
ideas. When this precaution is omitted, it is con- 
ceivable that the success attained by the percipient 
may in some cases be due to a lucky guess at what 
the agent would be likely to choose. Whether 
this explanation can plausibly be made to serve 
for any of the results quoted below, the reader will 
be in a position to judge for himself. 

Thought- Transference in the Normal State. 

The following is a record, taken from notes 
written at the time, of some experiments made on 

1 See for instance M. Bergson, in Revue Philosophique, Nov., 1887 ; and 
Dr. Sauvaire, id., March, 1887. 

2 This has actually been suggested as a possible explanation of Professor 
Janet's successful experiments (quoted below) in inducing sleep at a distance. 



200 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH, 

the 28th of April, 1892, in which Dr. Blair Thaw 
of New York was the percipient and Mrs. Thaw 
the agent. Dr. Thaw's eyes were blindfolded, and 
— since blindfolding is at the best a very imperfect 
means of preventing sight — the objects, we are 
told, were in each case held in such a position as to 
be outside the percipient's range of vision had his 
eyes been open. Further, Dr. Thaw's ears were 
muffled and Mrs. Thaw and a friend, Mr. Wyatt, 
who were the only persons present, kept silence, 
except when it was necessary to state the nature of 
the experiment. The objects were in all cases 
actually looked at by the agent, the "colour" 
being a coloured disc, and the numbers being printed 
on separate cards. It is not stated how the objects 
were selected, but the numbers, cards, and colours 
appear to have been taken at randon. 

April 28th 

Dr. Thaw, Percipient. Mrs. Thaw, Agent. Mr. M. H. 
Wyatt present. 

1st Object. Silk Pincushion, in form of Orange-Red 
Apple, quite round. — Percipient : A Disc. When asked what 
colour, said, Red or Orange. When asked what object, named 
Pincushion. 

2nd Object. A Short Lead Pencil, nearly covered by the 
nickel cover. Never seen by percipient. — Percipient : Some- 
thing white or light. A Card. I thought of Mr. Wyatfs 
silver pencil. 

jrd Object. A Dark Violet in Mr. Wyatt's button-hole, 
but not known to be in the house by percipient. — Percipient : 
Something dark. Not very big. Longish. Narrow. Soft. It 
cant be a cigarette because it is dark brown. A dirty colour. 
Asked about smell said : Not strong, but what you might call 
pungent j a clea?i smell. 



EXPERIMENTAL THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 201 

Percipient had not noticed smell before, though sitting by 
Mr. Wyatt some time, but when afterwards told of the violet 
knew that this was the odour noticed in the experiment. 

Asked to spell name, percipient said : Phrygian, Phrigid, or 
first letter V if not Ph. 

4th Object. Watch, dull silver with filigree. — Percipient : 
Yellow or dirty ivory. A r ot very big. Like carving on it. 
Watch is opened by agent, and percipient is asked what'was 
done. Percipient says : You opened it. It is shaped like a but- 
terfly. Percipient held finger and thumb of each hand making 
figure much like that of opened watch. Percipient asked to 
spell it said : I get r-i-n-g with a W at first. 

Playing Cards. 

Chosen. 
King Spades. — Spades. Spot in middle and spots outside. 
7 Spades, g Spades. 

4 Clues. — 4 Clubs. 

5 Spades. — 5 Diamonds. 

Numbers out of Nine Digits. 

Chosen. 

4. — Percipient said : It stands up straight. 4. 

6. — Percipient said : Those two are too much alike, only a 

little gap in one of them. It is either 

5 or 6. 

3-S- 

1. — Percipient said : Cover up that upper part if it is the 1. 

It is either J or I. 
2.-p, 8. 

From acting so much as agent in previous trials, I knew the 
shapes of these numbers printed on cardboard, and as agent 
found the 5 and 6 too much alike. After looking hard at one 
of them I can hardly tell the difference, and always cover the 
upper projection of the 1, because it is so much like a 7. 

The numbers were printed on separate pieces of cardboard, 
and there were about a hundred in the box, being made for 
some game. 



202 



STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 



Colours, Chosen at Random. 



Chosen. 

Bright Red 
Light Green 
Yellow .... 
Bright Yellow 
Dark Red 
Dark Blue 
Orange .... 



ist Guess. 
Bright Red. 
Light Green. 
Dark Blue 
Bright Yellow. 
Blue .... . 

Orange 

Green 



2nd Guess. 



Yellow. 

Dark Red. 
Dark Blue. 

Heliotrope. 



These successes with cards, numbers, and colours are the 
most remarkable of all. The percipient himself told the 
agents to change character of object after each actual failure, 
thus getting new sensations. 

Percipient was told to go into next room and get some- 
thing. 

ist Object. Silver Inkstand chosen. — Percipient, without 
moving, says : I think of something, but it is too bright and easy. 
It is the silver inkstand. 

Percipient told to get something in next room. 

2nd Object. A Glass Candlestick. — Percipient went to 
right corner of the room and to the cabinet with the object 
on it, but could not distinguish which object. 

Percipient had handkerchief off to be able to walk, but was 
not followed by agents, and did not see them. Agents found 
percipient standing with hands over candlestick undecided. 1 

It should be added that this record includes the 
whole of the experiments made on this particular 
evening with Dr. Thaw as percipient. Experi- 
ments such as that last described, in which the per- 
cipient has to execute some movement, can rarely 
be of a crucial kind. As the professional " thought- 
reader" has proved, it is not difficult in such a case 
for the subject of the experiment to guide himself 

' Proc. S.P.R., vol. viii. , pp. 428-9. 



EXPERIMENTAL THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 203 

by the indications unconsciously given by the 
agent, and often, probably, unconsciously received 
by himself. An alteration in the breathing, or the 
slightest gesture, may serve to tell him whether he 
is "hot" or "cold." But such an explanation will 
hardly apply to some of the other results. It will 
be observed, too, that the perception appears in 
many cases to have come gradually, and in a visual 
form : a circumstance which does not favour the 
supposition that the experimenters unconsciously 
whispered, or gave other audible indications of the 
object looked at. 1 

The next case is extracted from a report by Mr. 
H. G. Rawson, Barrister-at-law, of some experi- 
ments conducted by him with two ladies, Mrs. L. 
and Mrs. B., sisters. The following account gives 
the whole of the trials with diagrams made on this 
particular occasion. The account given is based 
on contemporary notes. 

December 12, 1894. Present : Mrs. L., Mrs. B., and 
myself. 

We tried first experiments with drawings, all of which are 
reproduced below. The annexed plan shows the relative 
positions of the sitters : — 

The originals of Nos. 1, 2, and 3 were drawn by Mrs. L. ; 
in some cases Mrs. B. had finished her thought copy almost as 
soon as Mrs. L. 

1 It should be noted, however, that there is evidence to show that informa- 
tion unconsciously received through the medium of one sense may be pre- 
sented in the consciousness as images of another sense — cards identified by 
touch, for instance, will be visualised. See Mrs. Verrall's experiments, 
Proc. S. P. R., vol. viii., p. 480; vol. xi., pp. 174, et seqq. But it should 
be added that we have no evidence that unconscious whispering is a vera 
causa in such cases. 



204 



STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Sketch of Room. 



Door 



Fireplace 



Mrs. L. 
X 



Mrs. B. X 



X H.G.R. 



Ut \ 




Mrs. L. on chair facing towards piano, writing on lap. Mrs. B. sitting 
at table, back to Mrs. L., n feet distant. H.G.R. facing Mrs. L. 



The originals of Nos. 4, 5, and 6 were drawn by Mrs. B., in 
each case at my suggestion. 

I have recorded all that was said. 

(No. 1) Shortly after Mrs. L. began drawing this (a nose) 
Mrs. B. said, " I can think of nothing ; I can only hold my 
nose." At that time I did not know what Mrs. L. was draw- 
ing. In some ten seconds Mrs. B. began drawing, and was 
finished within fifteen seconds of Mrs. L. 

(No. 2) This was more like a foot at first, but while wait- 
ing for Mrs. L. to begin a fresh subject Mrs. B. began shading 
the boot — without thinking — and this accentuates the dissimil- 
arity. This and the case mentioned on November 24th, are the 
only instances in which the drawing was touched after the 
original had been seen. 

(No. 4) Mrs. L. said almost at once — after, say, ten seconds 
— " Now I know what it is ; I am sure ; I can see it." 



EXPERIMENTAL THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 20 5 




O. 5 



«■ 5 



206 



STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 



(No. 5) Mrs. L. began drawing within ten to fifteen seconds, 
and presently said, " I am drawing something I can see." 
The clock was in front of her on the mantelpiece. 

(No. 6) Mrs. L. said, " I know what it is." 

Afterwards Mrs. B. told me that she thought of putting a 
label on the champagne bottle she drew (No. 4.) ' 



O. 6 





R. 6 



Short of impugning the good faith of the ex- 
perimenters, the only normal explanation of these 
results which can apparently be suggested is, that 
the one lady guessed from the sound of the pencil 
travelling over the paper the subject of the other's 
drawing. But it is scarcely credible that such a 
power could be acquired without long practice. 

An interesting series of experiments in transfer- 
ring imagined scenes is recorded by Mrs. A. W. 
Verrall. Mrs. Verrall has conducted many experi- 
ments with H., the agent in this case, a child (in 
1893) between nine and ten years of age, and has 
found some indications of telepathic powers, both 
in H. and herself. 



S. P. P., xii, pp. 9-11. 



EXPERIMENTAL THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 207 

Apparent Thought- Transference of Clearly Visualised Scenes, I 
Being Percipient. 

In the autumn of 1893 we tried to transfer visualised scenes ; 
in this I believe myself to have had some slight success as per- 
cipient with other people. H. and I sat in the same room, at 
some distance, back to back ; she thought of a scene or 
picture, I looked at the ceiling, described what I saw, and 
drew it. There was not complete silence, but no leading 
questions were asked, and very few remarks made. I took 
down at the time, on one occasion [Experiment (d) given 
below], every word that w r as said, and am sure that no sort of 
hint is given by H., other than the inevitable one of satisfac- 
tion or disappointment, of which I am conscious, though it is 
not expressed. After my description and drawing were com- 
plete, H. made rough outlines in some cases where her 
description was not definite enough to please her. She did 
this before seeing my drawings. We have made in all seven 
attempts, besides two where I had no impression of any kind. 
Out of these seven, in two cases H.'s visualisation was not 
clear enough to enable her to draw anything, and in these two 
cases I failed completely. In one case, there may have been a 
connection between my impression and H.'s mental picture ; 
the four remaining cases I will describe in detail. 

(a) My description was as follows : 

Darkish centre, perhaps brown ; light or white side pieces ; 
like an odd-shaped chandelier or a gigantic white butterfly. 
Most conspicuous vivid blue background, as if the object 
were seen against a bright blue sky. My drawing is re- 
produced on the Plate, marked P. 1. 

H.'s picture, in her own words : 

Ship leaving Port Gavin, very tall, brown, central mast, white 
sails — the whole showing against a brilliant blue sea, with 
dark brown rocks on one side. For H.'s drawing, see Plate, 
fig. A. 1. 

She had seen this on the Cornish coast, when on a visit with- 
out me, and had been struck with the beauty of colouring. 
She was disappointed at my not seeing the rocks. . ; , 



208 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

(b) My description : 

Fat insect— no, child — child with its back to me, and arms 
and legs stretched out ; colour reddish brown in the centre ; 
shiny bright head, very solid body. (See Plate, fig. P. 2.) 

H.'s picture : 

Baby , in a passion, standing in the corner with his face 

to the wall. 

The child in question had very shining, bright hair, much 
brighter, as H. said, than his frock, which was white (not 
brown). He stood with legs and arms outstretched. 

(e) My description : 

Large globe on the top of a pillar — base indistinct — cannot 
see colour of globe ; it is light, has reflections, is dazzling and 
bright — perhaps an electric light on the top of a pillar. (See 
Plate, fig. P. 3.) 

H.'s picture : 

Sun setting behind point of hill, so that a little notch is 
taken out of the disc of the sun by the point of the hill. 
The whole scene is distant, lower ranges of hills leading up to 
the highest, behind this is the setting sun. Mist over the 
lower part. (See Plate, fig. A. 3.) 

(d) My description, verbatim. H.'s comments in italics. 

" Scene, outdoors — colour, green. Yes. 

" Right hand definite, left hand undefined, e.g., on right 
hand, mountain or hill, line of trees, house. Which ? 

" Right hand, hill — green hill, clear outline. Something at 
bottom of hill, behind it sea — or before it. Purplish flat sur- 
face fills middle of picture. Object [at foot of hill] not 
natural — mechanical, geometrical in outline. Haw large ? 

" Can't see size ; colour, white and red. No horizontal 
lines ; [lines] vertical and aslant." 

H.'s picture : 

Dieppe as seen from the steamer (6 months before ; H.'s 
first impression of a French town). Cliff sharply defined on 
right ; on left, view cut off by the steamer. Red and white 
houses below the white cliff in the green hill, all seen across a 
dull bluish sea. 



EXPERIMEN TA L THO UGH T- TEA NSEERENCE. 209 




210 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

I have given the account of this impression in detail because 
it illustrates the difficulties which I experience in what I may- 
call interpretation. The objects present themselves to my 
mind as groups of lines, accompanied by an impression of 
colour, but there are no external objects for comparison, so 
that it is difficult to get any notion of their size — and some- 
times, as in this last case, they appear in succession, so that 
even their relative proportions are not easy to determine. 
The "object at the foot of the hill" seemed to be equally 
likely to be a house with a red roof and white front, a red 
waggon with a white load, or a child's white pinafore against 
a red dress. The only certainties were that the main colours 
were red and white, and the general trend of the lines vertical 
and aslant. The description is, I think, not inaccurate when 
referred to the view of Dieppe at the foot of the cliffs. 
Again in the 3rd case, it will be seen that in general outlines 
the two drawings are similar, but I interpreted my impression 
on too small a scale when I suggested a globe of electric light 
carried on a pillar for what was the sun momentarily resting 
upon the hill top. 1 

The form of the experiments is open to some ob- 
jection : and in ordinary cases it might fairly be 
suspected that the success attained was due to ver- 
bal indications given by the agent, which had been 
through forgetfulness omitted from the record. 
But with an experimenter so scrupulously exact as 

1 S. P. R., xi., pp. 180-181. Mrs. Verrall has kindly allowed me to see 
her original notes of experiment (d) with her rough drawing, made before 
she learnt from H. the subject set. There is a clear representation of a hill 
with scarped cliff-like outlines to the right, and at the foot three upright 
parallel lines, with oblique lines above them ; lines representing a flat sur- 
face to the left. I may add that Mrs. Verrall has given me an account of 
the two trials described in the text as complete failures. I should have 
hesitated to use so strong a term ; in one case at least the description of 
Mrs. Verrall's impression, though vague, seems to me not inconsistent with 
the scene thought of by the agent. 



EXPERIMEN TAL THO UGH T- TRA NSFEREA 'CE. 211 

Mrs. Verrall, I am not disposed to think that 
allowance of this kind need be made, and it will 
probably be conceded that the coincidences are too 
striking to be explained as the result of the natural 
concurrence of ideas between mother and child. 

A curious case of involuntary experiment in 
thought-transference has been recorded by Dr. 
Quintard. 1 Ludovic X., a robust and healthy child, 
at the age of five was able to solve the most com- 
plicated arithmetical problems instantaneously, and 
shewed promise of proving another Inaudi. The 
infant prodigy could, for instance, give in a moment 
the correct answer to a multiplication sum whose 
product ran into eight figures, and involved trans- 
formation of the unit from kilometres into leagues. 
He would even, though ignorant of any language 
but his own, solve problems presented to him in 
English, Latin, Greek, or Spanish. It appeared 
however, that his powers of answering depended 
absolutely on his mother being present and know- 
ing the answers, and that in her absence the 
secrets of the multiplication table and the Latin 
grammar were proof against assault, and the child 
CEdipus shared the common lot of childhood. The 
case was communicated in 1893 to the Societe de 
Medecine d'Angers, and has been investigated by 
Dr. Petrucci, Director of the Asylum of Maine-et- 
Loire, and several other medical men, who appear 
to have been satisfied that Ludovic's powers were 
genuine. 

1 Annates des Sciences Psychiques, Nov. -Dec, 1894. 



212 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Thought- Transference in Sleep. 

During the winter of 1892-3 a long series of ex- 
periments in the induction of telepathic dreams was 
carried out by Dr. Ermacora, of Padua, one of the 
Editors of the Rivista di Studi Psichici. The 
agent in these experiments was Signorina Maria 
Manzini, living at Padua with her mother, Signora 
Annetta ; the percipient was Angelina Cavazzoni, 
of Venice, a cousin of the agent, a little girl aged 
between four and five years. Angelina was stay- 
ing in the same house as Signorina Maria, but slept 
in a different room. The method of the experi- 
ment was generally as follows : Dr. Ermacora 
would come to the house after Angelina was in bed 
and would set a subject for a mental picture to 
Signorina Maria, such as a regatta seen from the 
Rialto at Venice, with the winners dressed in red. 
Angelina next morning would relate that she had 
had a dream to this effect. 1 If we may assume the 
good faith of the experimenters — a point upon 
which Dr. Ermacora has no doubt — the success 
attained in this series of experiments is certainly 
very striking ; and the precautions taken to keep 
Angelina and Signorina Maria apart — sealing of 
doors, etc. — were apparently sufficient to exclude 

1 Actually the procedure was somewhat more complicated. The subject 
was set to Sig na Maria in somnambulism, and it was her dream-personality, 
" Elvira," who professed to impress the dream on the mind of the sleeping 
child. And Angelina, through shyness, related her dream, as a rule, not to 
Dr. Ermacora, but to Signora Annetta, who was, however, ignorant of the 
nature of the experiment. For some account of the nature and significance 
of these dream-personalities, see Chapters XII and XIII. 



EXPERIMENTA L THO UGH T- TRA NSFERENCE. 2 1 3 

unconscious communication, as in somnambulism. 
But the later experiments of the series seem to be 
independent of the good faith of the persons con- 
cerned. In some of these experiments Dr. Erma- 
cora shewed to Signorina Maria an actual drawing 
from a scientific journal of some complicated in- 
strument or machine, chosen out of a large num- 
ber of similar plates included in the same journal. 
Next morning the whole series of plates would be 
put before Angelina, in the absence of Signorina 
Maria, and she would, as a rule, pick out the correct 
one. It is certainly incredible that these drawings 
could have been described so as to be distinguish- 
able from other similar drawings by anyone un- 
familiar with the machines represented. 1 

Thought- Transference with Hypnotised Subjects. 

But the most striking results in thought-trans- 
ference have been observed when the percipients 
are in the hypnotic trance. The hypnotised sub- 
ject is, of course, more amenable to suggestion of 
other kinds than the same person in the normal 

] Dr. Ermacora sent us all the plates used in these experiments. Some 
of them are reproduced in the account of his experiments published in the 
Proc. S. P. R., vol. xi., p. 235. In a further set of trials the impossibility 
of a verbal description becomes still more apparent. Dr. Ermacora placed 
a drop of specially prepared ink on a piece of paper, doubled the paper, and 
then cut it in half along the crease. This gave him a pair of symmetrical 
but specularly inverted figures. He made five pairs of these figures for each 
experiment. He selected by lot one particular figure, and shewed it, for a 
period of about forty or fifty seconds, to the entranced Signorina Maria. He 
then took away with him the whole ten figures, and in the morning they 
were taken to Angelina to choose from. The successes attained in the later 
trials, though partial, were, I think, decidedly greater than chance would ac- 
count for. 



214 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

condition, and it may be that the superior suscep- 
tibility to telepathic suggestion is merely a special 
instance of this general law. But, as suggested in 
a later chapter, the cause may lie deeper. There 
are some indications that telepathy is a vestigial 
faculty, atrophied because our modern civilisation 
has no longer an imperative need of it, which re- 
gains something of its lost power during the temp- 
orary restoration, in the hypnotic trance, of a more 
primitive stage of consciousness. At any rate the 
most fruitful and the best established results have 
been obtained from entranced percipients. 

In the summer and autumn of 1889, Professor 
and Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, with the assistance of 
Mr. G. A. Smith, conducted a long and careful 
series of experiments with hypnotised percipients 
in the transference of numbers. The agent and 
hypnotist was Mr. G. A. Smith, and the entranced 
subject sat in the same room, a few feet off, gener- 
ally with his back to the experimenters. In all, 
there were 644 trials made with four different per- 
cipients. Of these, 1 1 7 were completely successful 
and in 14 cases the digits were given correctly, but 
in reverse order. The numbers — which were 
stamped upon small wooden counters — included the 
whole series from 10 to 90 ; and the most probable 
number of complete successes, if chance alone had 
operated, was therefore 8. In a later series of trials, 
subjects for mental pictures — such as a choir-boy, a 
mouse-trap, a barrow of fish, a " sandwich " man — 
were set to Mr. Smith, and the percipient, in a large 



EXPERIMEN TA L THO UGH T- TRA NSFERENCE. 2 1 5 

proportion of cases, succeeded in giving an accurate 
description of the imagined scene. From the 
curiously piece-meal way in which the percipient in 
many instances described what he saw, it is difficult 
to doubt that he actually had a hallucinatory picture 
before him. 1 From the precautions taken by the 
experimenters, it is clear that the only normal 
avenue of communication between agent and per- 
cipient in those trials was by the ear. That Mr. 
Smith should have unconsciously whispered, and 
that the subject should have caught the whisper, is, 
perhaps, conceivable. But it is very improbable, 
because Mr. Smith and the other experimenters 
were aware of this danger and on their guard against 
it ; because no movements of the lips or other sus- 
picious indications were observed ; and lastly,, be- 
cause an analysis of the failures does not reveal 
any tendency to mistake one number for another 
similar in sound. Moreover, in the experiments 
with imaginary scenes, which were designed ex- 
pressly to meet this objection, it is not easy to sup- 
pose that the detailed information required could 
have been so given, or if given, could have escaped 
detection. 2 

1 Proc. S. P. R., vol. vi., pp. 128-170 ; and vol. viii., pp. 554-577. 

2 This series of experiments has been criticised by Messrs. Lehmann and 
Hansen, of Copenhagen (see Wundt's Philosophische Studien, vol. xi., 
part 4), on the ground that the results could be explained by faint whisper- 
ing with closed lips on Mr. Smith's part, coupled with auditory hyper- 
esthesia on the part of the percipients. That such whispering is possible 
Messrs. Lehmann and Hansen seem to have proved. Professor Sidgwick, 
however, in discussing their paper (Proc. S. P. R., vol. xii., pp, 298, etc.), 
points out that they have not shewn that whispering of this kind can take 
place involuntarily ; that to assume it in this instance argues hyperesthesia 



2l6 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC A I RESEARCH. 

It is scarcely possible, however, to apply this ex- 
planation to a later series of experiments, conducted 
as before by Mrs. Sidgwick, in concert with Mr. 
Smith and Miss Alice Johnson. In some of these 
experiments the agent and percipient were on differ- 
ent stories of the house (an " arch " on the beach at 
Brighton), separated by a wooden floor covered by 
a thick Axminster carpet. In others, the percipient 
was in a room at Mrs. Sidgwick's lodgings with the 
doors closed, and the agent, Mr. Smith, was outside 
in the passage, the distance between them varying 
from ten to fifteen feet and upwards. Both agent 
and percipient were under close observation 
throughout the trials, and it seems incredible that 
any sound which escaped the notice of the observer 
who sat close to the agent and watched him con- 
tinuously could have been perceptible to a per- 
son sitting at a considerable distance, and with a 
closed door or a ceiling and carpet intervening. 
Nevertheless, in one series alone, out of 252 trials 
with double numbers, complete success was obtained 
27 times, and the correct digits were guessed in 
reverse order 8 times. The subjoined table gives 
details of this series. The percipient in all the 252 
trials here quoted was a young lady, Miss B } 

on the part of the subjects, of which the experimenters did not at the time 
succeed in finding any evidence ; and lastly, that an analysis of the mistakes 
does not — as the Danish investigators contend — lend any support to the 
hypothesis that the information was conveyed by auditory channels. What- 
ever view may be taken, however, of the arguments brought forward by 
Messrs. Lehmann and Hansen, it will probably be conceded that their 
hypothesis can scarcely apply to the results quoted in the text, in which 
agent and percipient were in different rooms, with door or ceiling interven- 
ing. x Proc. S. P. R., vol. viii., pp. 536-552. 



EXPERIMENTAL THO UGIIT- TRANSFERENCE. 2 I J 
(i) Place, the Arch. Percipient upstairs ; Agent downstairs. 







■a 

S3 


L 


3j3 

Q M 


be 


in 




Date 1800. 


8 




5-S 


13 * 

li? 







H 


Notes. 




C 


to 


u, 


D O 












5 fa 




2 






Jan. 6. . . 






6 1 


8 


j Professor Barrett present in 
I addition to the usual party. 


7... 


I 


1 


10 


I 


4 


17 


8... 




I* 


2 




3 


6 


This set was done under very 
unfavourable conditions, as 
there were three other percipi- 
ents in the room guessing at 
the same time, which was very 
confusing. 


11. . . 


I 


1* 


8 




10 


20 




" 12. . . 


Q 


1 


13 


2 


8 


33 




Mar. 17. . . 


3 




2 


I 


6 


12 




41 18... 


1 


1 


1 


I 


4 


8 




" 22. . . 


1 




5 


I 


4 


11 


Drs. Myers, Penrose, and Lan- 
caster present in addition to 
the usual party. 


" 23... 


2 




6 




10 


18 


Drs. Myers and Rolleston present 
in addition to the usual party. 


July 8 . . . 








I 


2 


3 




9... 






1 


3 


2 


6 




Nov. 6. . . 


1 




1 


1 




3 


Dr. Myers present. 


" 10. . . 


1 






11 


2 

57 


3 
148 




Totals . . 


20 


5 


55 





2) Place, the Arch. Percipient downstairs ; Agent 3 upstairs. 



Mar. 17. 

" 23. 

June 16. 

Totals 







4 


1 


13 


18 






2 


3 


7 


12 






1 




2 


3 






7 


4 


22 


33 



Miss McKerlie present. 



1 Two of these were given completely right first and then changed. 

2 The first digit of the number drawn was guessed first. 

3 It will be seen that out of the 181 trials made at the arch the agent was 
downstairs in 148, and that the successes — 20 — were all obtained under 
these conditions. The difficulty of any signals imperceptible to the vigilant 
onlookers being given by the agent under such circumstances is, of course, 
almost insuperable. 



218 



STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 



(3) Place, Mrs. Sidgwick's Lodgings. Percipient in room, and 

Agent in passage. 



Date 1890. 


J3 

.s° 

U 

'3 

<y 
2 

2 
1 

1 
1 


> 
"So 

S 

1 
1 

i 2 


>> 

'Sox 

5-g 

en 

1 
ii 1 

3 

2 

1 
1 
4 


"5 « 

C >> 

D 


bo 

a 



j 



H 


j 

Notes. 


Mar. 19. . . 
Dec. 17. . . 

" 19... 
" 19... 

r 
" 20. -< 

" 20. . . 


I 

I 

I 
I 
2 

8 


2 
12 

4 
2 

4 
6 

30 
109 


3 
27 

7 

5 

4 
4 

7 

14 
71 
252 


These guesses were made by 
table-tilting, Miss B. normal, 
having her hands on the table. 
Miss Robertson present on De- 
cember 17, 19, and 20. 

Agent in room across passage, 
but only one of the two inter- 
vening doors closed. 

Guesses made verbally by Miss 
B. hypnotised, having her 
hands on the table. 

Guesses tilted by the table, at the 
same time as the above. 

Miss B. hypnotised, guessing in 
the usual way. 

Guesses made by table-tilting, 
Miss B. normal, having her 
hands on the table. 


Totals . . 


7 


3 


23 




Totals of 
(1), (2), and 

(3) 
together. 


27 


8 


85 


23 





Production of Movements and Other Results. 

The telepathic impulse may influence the per- 
cipient's organism in various ways. A case is cited 
in Chapter XIII. (Mrs. Newnham's) in which 
writing produced by planchette betrayed a know- 
ledge of facts, unknown to the writer, which were 

1 Two of these were guessed right first and then changed. 

2 This was given completely right first and then changed. 



EXPERIMEN TA L THO UGHT- TRANSFERENCE. 2 1 9 

within the cognisance of other persons present in 
the room. Many similar cases have been reported 
to or observed by us. Or, again, the movements 
of a table may be unconsciously guided by the 
hands of the sitters, who may, in their turn, be in- 
fluenced by the unspoken thought of some person 
sitting at a distance. 1 A very curious result was 
obtained in some experiments by the late Edmund 
Gurney, which were continued after his death by 
Mrs. Henry Sidgwick. The subject's hands were 
placed through holes in a high screen, so that he 
could not see them ; one particular finger would be 
selected, and the agent (Mr. G. A. Smith), by the 
direction of his attention to the finger in question, 
would cause it to become rigid and insensitive. It 
would take too long to describe here the precau- 
tions adopted to ensure that the subject should 
not know the finger selected for operation. They 
were, I think, sufficient. The genuineness of the 
anaesthesia could hardly be open to doubt. The 
results are noteworthy because the effects produced 
were, of course, beyond the power of the subject 
to imitate by conscious effort. 2 

Thought- Transference at a Distance. 

Compared with the mass of evidence for thought- 
transference at close quarters, the record of experi- 
ments when agent and percipient are separated by 

1 See Proc. S. P. R., ii., pp. 247 et seq. ; Apparitions and Thought 
Transference, pp. 96 et seq. ; and case II. in the next chapter. 

2 For a full account of these experiments see Proc. S. P. R., vol. v., 14- 
17 and 254-259, and vol. viii., 577-596. 



220 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

a considerable distance is but a meagre one. Prob- 
ably this circumstance is partly due to the much 
greater difficulty of conducting such experiments ; 
the larger demands made upon the time of the ex- 
perimenters ; and the difficulty of maintaining a 
vivid interest in experiments of a somewhat tedious 
nature, when the results cannot be immediately 
ascertained. Something is also probably due to 
the effect produced by the distance upon the per- 
cipient's imagination. But, of course, independ- 
ently of such adventitious drawbacks, we should 
expect, on the analogy of the physical forces, to 
find the efficiency of telepathy to diminish rapidly 
as the distance increases. But on the other hand 
there are many phenomena — examples of which 
will be cited in the next chapter — which seem to 
indicate that the telepathic impulse may, on occa- 
sion, penetrate across very great distances. It is 
probable, however, that the spontaneity of the im- 
pulse in such cases lends it greater efficacy. 

Of experiments at a considerable distance, the 
best known are probably those conducted with 
Madame B. 1 by Dr. Gibert and Professor Pierre 
Janet, at Havre. Madame B. had for some time 
been a patient of Dr. Gibert's, who had been in the 
habit of placing her in the hypnotic trance. He 
had observed indications that the exercise of his 
will was a necessary condition of the successful, or 
at least of the speedy, induction of the trance, and 

1 For an account of Madame B. as a hypnotic subject see later, Chapter 
XII. 



EXPERIMEN TA L THO UGH T- TRA NSFERENCE. 2 2 I 

this led him to attempt to hypnotise his patient at 
a distance, without her knowledge. In all twenty- 
five trials were made between the beginning of 
October, 1885, and the 6th of May, 1886. In some 
of these trials Dr. Gibert was the operator, in others 
Professor Janet. Mr. F. W. H. Myers and the 
late Dr. A. T. Myers were present at several of the 
experiments. I quote from the former's account of 
what took place : 

" (II.) On the morning of the 22nd we again ' selected by lot 
an hour (n a.m.) at which M. Gibert should will, from his dis- 
pensary (which is close to his house), that Madame B. should 
go to sleep in the Pavilion. It was agreed that a rather longer 
time should be allowed for the process to take effect ; as it had 
been observed (see M. Janet's previous communication) that 
she sometimes struggled against the influence, and averted the 
effect for a time by putting her hands in cold water, etc. At 
11.25 we entered the Pavilion quietly, and almost at once she 
descended from her room to the sa/on, profoundly asleep. 
Here, however, suggestion might again have been at work. 
We did not, of course, mention M. Gibert's attempt of the pre- 
vious night. But she told us in her sleep that she had been 
very ill in the night, and repeatedly exclaimed : ' Pourquoi M. 
Gibert m'a-t-il fait souffrir ? Mais j'ai lave les mains contin- 
uellement.' This is what she does when she wishes to avoid 
being influenced. 

4< (III.) In the evening (22nd) we all dined at M. Gibert's, 
and in the evening M. Gibert made another attempt to put her 
to sleep at a distance from his house in the Rue Sery, — she 
being at the Pavilion, Rue de la Ferme, — and to bring her to 
his house by an effort of will. At 8.55 he retired to his 
study ; and MM. Ochorowicz, Marillier, Janet, and A. T. 
Myers went to the Pavilion, and waited outside in the street, 
out of sight of the house. At 9.22 Dr. Myers observed Madame 
1 The experiment of the previous day had proved inconclusive. 



222 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

B. coming half-way out of the garden-gate, and again retreat- 
ing. Those who saw her more closely observed that she was 
plainly in the somnambulic state, and was wandering about 
and muttering. At 9.25 she came out (with eyes persistently 
closed, so far as could be seen), walked quickly past MM. 
Janet and Marillier without noticing them, and made for M. 
Gibert's house, though not by the usual or shortest route. (It 
appeared afterwards that the bonne had seen her go into the 
salon at 8.45, and issue thence asleep at 9.15 ; had not looked 
in between those times.) She avoided lamp-posts, vehicles, 
etc., but crossed and recrossed the street repeatedly. No one 
went in front of her or spoke to her. After eight or ten 
minutes she grew much more uncertain in gait, and paused as 
though she would fall. Dr. Myers noted the moment in the 
Rue Faure ; it was 9.35. At about 9.40 she grew bolder, and 
at 9.45 reached the street in front of M. Gibert's house. 
There she met him, but did not notice him, and walked into 
his house, where she rushed hurriedly from room to room on 
the ground-floor. M. Gibert had to take her hand before she 
recognised him. She then grew calm. 

" M. Gibert said that from 8.55 to 9.20 he thought intently 
about her ; from 9.20 to 9.35 he thought more feebly ; at 9.35 
he gave the experiment up, and began to play billiards ; but 
in a few minutes began to will her again. It appeared that his 
visit to the billiard-room had coincided with her hesitation and 
stumbling in the street. But this coincidence may of course 
have been accidental. . . .' 

" (V.) On the 23rd, M. Janet, who had woke her up and left 
her awake, lunched in our company, and retired to his own 
house at 4.30 (a time chosen by lot) to try to put her to sleep 
from thence. At 5.5 we all entered the salon of the Pavilion, 
and found her asleep with shut eyes, but sewing vigorously 
(being in that stage in which movements once suggested are 
automatically continued). Passing into the talkative state, she 
said to M. Janet, ' C'est vous qui m'avez fait dormir a quatre 
heures et demi.' The impression as to the hour may have been 

1 Experiment IV. was a suggestion given at close quarters. 



EXPERIMENTAL THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 223 

a suggestion received from M. Janet's mind. We tried to 
make her believe that it was M. Gibert who had sent her to 
sleep, but she maintained that she had felt that it was M. 
Janet. 

" (VI.) On April 24th, the whole party chanced to meet at 
M. Janet's house at 3 p.m., and he then, at my suggestion, 
entered his study to will. that Madame B. should sleep. We 
waited in his garden, and at 3.20 proceeded together to the 
Pavilion, which I entered first at 3.30, and found Madame B. 
profoundly sleeping over her sewing, having ceased to sew. 
Becoming talkative, she said to M. Janet, ' C'est vous qui 
m'avez commanded She said that she fell asleep at 3.5 p.m." ' 

Of the whole 25 trials, 18 were complete, and 4 
doubtful, or partial, successes ; i. e., on two occasions 
Madame B. was found washing her hands to ward 
off the trance, and in two instances the trance super- 
vened twenty minutes or more after the time fixed. 
During the period of these experiments it is to be 
noted that Madame B. only once fell into ordinary 
sleep during the daytime, and twice was spontane- 
ously entranced ; and that on the only three 
occasions on which she left the house in the even- 
ing she did so in apparent response to a mental 
suggestion. There is little ground, therefore, for 
attributing the successes claimed to chance 
coincidence. 

A later series of 35 trials, undertaken by Profes- 
sor Janet in the autumn of 1886, was less success- 
ful. 2 Similar experiments have been made on 
various subjects by Professor Richet, Dr. Dufay, 
Dr. Hericourt, and many others. The experiments 

1 Proc. S. P. R., vol. iv., pp. 133-135. 
2 Revue de V 'Hypnotisme, Feb., 1888. 



224 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

in action at a distance made by English observers 
have consisted mostly of attempts to transfer dia- 
grams, pictures, objects, and so on. The Rev'd 
A. Glardon, of Tour-de-Peilz, Vaud, Switzerland, 
has conducted many experiments of the kind with 
a friend, Mrs. M. I select for reproduction here a 
series of six trials carried out in May and June, 1893. 
The agent throughout was at Tour-de-Peilz ; the 
percipient during the first four trials was in Italy, 
in the 5th at Vevey, and in the 6th was in the 
same house as the agent, but in a different room. 
The original diagrams drawn by both agent and 
percipient, carefully dated, with the notes written 
on them at the time of the experiments, have been 
sent to us, and are reproduced (with a few ex- 
ceptions, noted in the text) in the accompanying 
plates. Appended is an extract from an account 
of the experiments. 1 

" In all cases, the letter O on the Plates denotes the draw- 
ings of the agent and the letter R those of the percipient ; 
and the dotted lines mark off the drawings belonging to each 
experiment. 

" In the first two experiments, the agent was at Tour-de- 
Peilz, and the percipient at Florence, and the former notes 
' 10 p.m.' on his sheet of diagrams as the hour of the ex- 
periments, also that he used the diagram O 1 on May 8th and 
9th, [1893] and O 2 on May 10th and nth. 

"The percipient made one drawing, reproduced as R. 1, a, 
on May 8th. On May 9th she made eight attempts, of which 
the one most nearly resembling O 1 is given as R 1, b. On 
her paper is noted ' 1893, Tuesday, May 9th, 10.15/ On 
May 10th, she attempted nothing. The whole of what she 
x Journal, S. P. R., Dec, 1896. 



EXPERIMEN TA L THO UGH T- TRA NSFERENCE. 225 

drew on May nth is reproduced as 'R 2 ' ; her paper being 
marked, 'May 11, '93 ; 10 p.m.' 

" Experiments 3 and 4. — The diagrams O 3 and O 4 were 
used in experiments in which the agent was at Tour-de-Peilz 
and the percipient at Torre Pellice, Italy ; O 3 was used on 
May 19th and O 4 on May 22nd and 23rd ; in all cases at 
10 p.m. R 3 represents all the drawings made by the percipient 
on May 19th ; her paper is marked ' 19 May, 1893 ; 10 p.m ' ; 
and also bears the note: — 'a small very bright design or 
object.' On May 23rd, at 10.5 p.m., she made three drawings, 
two of which are reproduced as R 4. It will be observed 
that the bracket in the agent's drawing seems to be reproduced 
in the second of these, but this may be a mere chance re- 
semblance. 

" Experiment O 5 is the diagram used by the agent on June 
2nd at 10 p.m., he being still at Tour-de-Peilz and the per- 
cipient at Vevey. She made no drawing on this date, but 
notes : — ' June 2nd, 1893 ; 10 p.m. See nothing but a sort of 
frame and a crown ; too sleepy to draw it.' 

" Experiment 6. — In this experiment, the agent and percipi- 
ent were both in the same house at Tour-de-Peilz, but in 
different rooms. It occurred on June 7th, 1893, and Mr. 
Glardon gives the following account of it : 

" ' Gryon-sur-Bex, Vaud, June 27, 1893. 

' ' Mrs. M. was sitting alone in a room adjoining the one I 
was in. I drew the diagram and fixed my attention on it„ 
After two or three minutes, Mrs. M. called aloud, saying, 
"I am too much excited to-day, don't go on"; and on my 
entering the room, she said, " I can see nothing but the design 
of the embroidery I have been working at this morning, and I 
will not draw it because I think it too silly." 

She sent me afterwards that design ; you can judge for 
yourself. The fact is that, unawares, I had drawn a diagram 
resembling closely that design.' " 

" Mrs. M. sends us also the following note, with regard to 
this series of experiments : 



226 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

" ' Gryon-sur-Bex, June 27, 1893. 

" ' Dear Sir : I wish to add a few words to Mr. Glardon's 
communication of even date. 

" ' I would say that during the latter part of the experiments 
which Mr. Glardon and I made after sending off the first re- 
sults to you, I was on a visit and was frequently disturbed ; 
in fact, I often found it impossible to keep the appointment 
as desired. 

" ' May I add that I think if my friend had made but one 
single drawing on a page instead of many, the impression on 
my mind might have been more distinct. Of this I cannot be 
sure, but it may be worthy of consideration.' " 

The exact value of the coincidences in such a 
case it is difficult to estimate ; but experiments 2, 
3, and 6 may, I think, be counted as successful. 
Moreover, as regards the rest, it is important to 
note that the percipient employs a straight line 
when the original diagram consisted of straight 
lines, and curved lines when the original was 
curved. The description given of figure 5, if in- 
complete, is roughly accurate so far as it goes. 
Several experiments of the same kind, partly with 
objects and partly with diagrams, have been carried 
out by Miss Campbell and Miss Despard. 1 The 
following is an account of a few recent experiments 
by these ladies. The accounts, it will be seen, are 
written independently, and without any communi- 
cation between agent and percipient. All the let- 
ters in the case, and the envelopes corresponding 
to the first two of them, have been sent to the 
Society. 

1 See Apparitions and Thought-Trans ference , pp. 127-129, and Journal, 
S. P. R., April, 1896. 



EXPERIMEN TA L THO UGH T- TRA NSFERENCE. 22J 




228 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Miss Despard describes the general conditions of the ex- 
periments thus : 

" Agent in Surbiton, Percipient in London, W. C. district, 
distance about fourteen miles. 

"Agreed upon: Agent to concentrate attention at n p.m. ; 
percipient to then write down any impression received. Ex- 
periments to begin on December 27, 1895 ; one experiment 
each night, alternately an object and a diagram. December 
31st to be omitted." 

The first account is a letter written from Surbiton by the 
agent, Miss Despard, to Miss Campbell in London: 

" Strathmore, Surbiton Hill Park, Surbiton, 
" December 27, 1895. 11.30 P.M. 

" Dear K. — As you know, we agreed a few days ago to try 
some experiments in thought transference, — to begin to-night 
at 11 p.m., — alternate nights to think of an object and a dia- 
gram. So to-night I fixed my attention, about 11.4 p.m., on a 
brass candlestick with a lighted candle in it. I feel the result 
will not be very satisfactory, for I found difficulty in concen- 
trating my mind, and not having decided previously what ob- 
ject to think of, I looked over the mantelpiece first, and re- 
jected two or three things before fixing on the candlestick. 
A very noisy train was also distracting my attention, so I 
wonder if you will think of that. 

"December 28t/i y 11.45 P- m - — I thought of this diagram [a 
cross inscribed in a triangle], the [triangle] in thick black, 
and the cross inside in lighter. 

u Dece?nber 29//*, 11.40/.?/*. — I hope this will be more success- 
ful. I found to-night I could bring up a much clearer mental 
picture of the object, — a small Bristol ware jug about six 
inches high, the lower part being brownish red, of a metallic 
coppery colour, the upper part having a band of reddish and 
light purple flowers of a somewhat conventional rose pattern 
— handle greenish. I do not think you have seen this jug, as 
it has been put away in a cupboard and only lately brought 
out. I saw the jug chiefly by bright fire light. 



EXPERIMENTAL THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 229 



0.3 



-><>C<><>^<^>0><^^<>^>^ 






A- 




X.4 





230 



STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH, 




"December 30th, 12 midnight. I am very tired and fear the 
result is vague ; this is the diagram. 



P 



My mental image was not as correct, but tended to slope up 
to the right. 

" Let me know your impressions soon. Yours, etc., 

" R. C. Despard." 

The corresponding account of the percipient, Miss Camp- 
bell, is as follows : 

" 77 Chesterton Road, W m 
" December 29, 1895. 

" Dear R. — I have nothing very satisfactory to report. I 
am sorry to say I quite forgot on the 27th about our projected 
experiments until I was just getting into bed, when I suddenly 
remembered, and just then I heard a train making a great 
noise, and as I have never noticed it like that before, I won- 
dered if it was one of your trains. I could not fix my mind 
on any object, but clock, watch, bath, all flitted past, and the 
circle of firelight in the front room ; the only word that came 
to me was ' sand ' and a sound like k or q at beginning of a 
word (you know I as often hear the name of the object as see 
the thing itself). I stopped, for it seemed ridiculous, but you 
must have attracted my attention, for just after I stopped I 



EXPERIMEN TA L THO UGH T- TEA NSEEEEJVCE. 2 3 1 

heard the clock here strike the half hour, and found next 
morning it was twenty minutes fast, so when I u suddenly re- 
membered," it must have been just after eleven. 

" Last night I believe you forgot, for I had no strong im- 
pression, but you see the paper enclosed. 1 The scribbles in 
corner my pencil did without me ; the rectangle I believe was 
a guess ; as for the circle, my pencil would go round and 
round in the centre making that spot, the circle itself being a 
very shadowy impression. 

" n.i$ p.m. The first thing that came into my mind was a 
sponge, but I think that was suggested by the sound of water 
running in the bath-room, and next I had more distinctly an 
impression of a reddish metallic lustre, and I thought it must 
be the Moorish brass tray on May's mantelpiece ; but at last 
I saw quite distinctly a small jug of a brownish metallic ap- 
pearance below, with above that a white band with coloured 
flowers, lilac and crimson, on it. I can't be sure what it was 
like at the top, for that seemed to be in shadow and seemed 
to be darkish, — perhaps like the bottom, but I saw no metallic 
gleam. I don't remember anything like this among May's 
things, but the impression was so vivid I describe it. 

'* 30M, 1 1. 15 p.m. Thought vaguely of a triangle and figure 

rlike this, but no vivid impression ; if you were 
thinking of any figure at all, were also thinking of 
something else. 
" $\st. I send you this as far as it goes, and shall 
be glad to hear from you with your accounts. 
" Yours, 

" C. M. Campbell, 
" 15 Heathcote Street, W. C." 

One other class of experimental — or quasi- 
experimental — evidence must be briefly noticed 
here. In a few instances persons who believed 
themselves to have the power of impressing others, 
or of being impressed, telepathically, have kept 

1 The diagram enclosed is not at all similar to the agent's figure. 



232 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAI RESEARCH. 

diaries of their experiences, which they have sub- 
mitted to Mrs. H. Sidorwick and other members of 
the Society. A diary of this nature was kept 
through the greater part of the year 1888 by the 
lady who writes under the pseudonym of Miss X., 
and by her friend D. Full extracts from these 
diaries will be found in Proc. S. P. R., vi., pp. 377— 
397. The amount of correspondence with the 
facts as revealed by the diaries is very striking. 
In D.'s diary there are twenty entries recorded be- 
fore the event was known to her. Of these, four- 
teen purport to relate to music which Miss X. — in 
another part of London — was playing at the mo- 
ment, and two to the reading of books. Of the 
sixteen telepathic impressions thus recorded, four- 
teen were correct, even to the extent of naming 
the composer of the music played, and one was 
partially correct. The four entries which related 
to other events were also correct. Of the twenty- 
seven entries made beforehand in Miss X.'s diary, 
twenty-four appear to have been correct, though in 
two cases the correspondence with the fact was 
very likely accidental. Two other diaries of the 
kind, one kept by a physician of San Francisco 
when on a short absence from his wife, and one by 
Signor Bonatti, are quoted in Proc. S. PP. 1 A 
remarkable diary has recently been sent to us 2 by 

1 Vol. xi., pp. 455 and 477. 

2 Journal, S. P. R., October and November, 1896. The analysis of the 
diary given in the text must be regarded as only approximately correct. 
Some of the entries are ambiguous, and it is not always practicable to draw 
the line between complete and partial fulfilment. But I think the figures 
given represent the general results with fair accuracy. 



EXPERIMENTAL THO UGHT- TRANSFERENCE. 233 

Dr. Thomas Duke, of Bilton Road, Rugby, kept 
by a lady patient of his own. The entries cover 
the period from December 22, 1893, to December 
27, 1894. Excluding some doubtful cases, I find 
in the diary 122 entries referring to definite events, 
of which 1 1 7 corresponded with the facts ; of these 
117, 26 are recorded as having been written before 
the event. There were thus only five failures. 
Most of the entries relate to visits or the receipt 
of letters from various friends, and especially to 
the visits of Dr. Duke. Many of them also relate 
to the arrival of the patient's medicine. In a few 
cases the entries in the diary are attested by letters 
written to the diarist by Dr. Duke, announcing the 
receipt of the telepathic message. The writer of 
the diaries played sometimes the part of agent, 
sometimes of percipient. 

It will be seen that the proportion of successes 
in this case is very high. Per contra, it must be 
borne in mind that the commonplace nature of 
the events recorded leaves a very large scope for 
chance and lucky guessing. But the proportion 
of successes recorded seems too high to be fully 
explained in this way. And the example of the 
diarist is certainly to be commended for imitation 
by those who believe themselves to be the recipi- 
ents of telepathic impressions or presentiments. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATIONS. 

IN dealing first with the experimental evidence 
for telepathy we have sacrificed the historical 
for the logical order ; for the more impressive spon- 
taneous phenomena — apparitions of the dying, warn- 
ing dreams, and so on— have attracted attention from 
very early times ; and even in our own generation it 
was these which first suggested the possibility of 
the action of mind upon mind at a distance. But 
it is doubtful whether any generalisation founded 
upon them alone could have won even such quali- 
fied recognition as is now accorded to the hypothe- 
sis of telepathy. The position may be illustrated 
from another field of research. So long as the ex- 
ponents of the " germ theory " could support their 
position only by arguments derived from the distri- 
bution of certain diseases, their manner of propa- 
gation and development, their periodic character — 
phenomena which, although sufficiently striking, 
are not in themselves susceptible of exact interpre- 
tation, — the doctrine remained a more or less plausi- 
ble hypothesis. It was not until the germs, whose 
existence had been so long suspected, were actually 
isolated in the laboratory, and on being introduced 

234 



TELE PA THIC HA LL UCINA TIONS. 235 

into other animal bodies had reproduced the dis- 
ease, that the connection of certain maladies with 
the presence of specific organisms in the body be- 
came an accepted conclusion of Science. So here, 
the theory of telepathy does not rest primarily upon 
the spontaneous phenomena, impressive though 
these are to the imagination, whose seasons and 
operation we can neither forecast nor control, but 
on a great mass of experimental work, of which a 
few recent examples have been given in the preced- 
ing chapter, and on those telepathically induced 
hallucinations, of which an example is quoted be- 
low (Case V.). But when we have seen reason 
from the study of this experimental evidence to in- 
fer the possibility of such action at a distance, we 
shall find in the phenomena now to be considered 
valuable confirmation of our conclusion, and ulti- 
mately, no doubt, indispensable aid in explaining 
the nature of the new power which we surmise, and 
correlating it with the rest of the physical world. 

Before we proceed to consider the evidence in 
detail, a few words may be said as to the precau- 
tions necessary in collecting it and in appraising its 
value. Of wilful deception there is in most cases 
little danger. A Jew, if we may trust an old Rab- 
binical saying, will not make salt-spoons from his 
father's bones ; and, apart from any other consid- 
eration ; the fact that many of these narratives, 
and those for the most part which are evidentially 
the strongest, are concerned with death or disaster, 
forms a sufficient safeguard in most cases against 



236 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

deliberate mis-statement. As a matter of fact, the 
few instances of hoaxing which have come to our 
knowledge have been concerned with cases where 
no exceptional crisis was involved, and in which, 
therefore, the coincidences were usually of an in- 
conclusive kind. 

Nor has chance unadorned much to say in the 
matter, at least in that part of the spontaneous 
evidence on which our case mainly rests — the coin- 
cident hallucinations. Hallucinations amongst the 
sane are events sufficiently uncommon for a numeri- 
cal estimate of the chances to be made with ap- 
proximate accuracy. Nor are we driven to make 
shift with conjectural statistics. Professor Sidg- 
wick's Committee, at the instance of the Interna- 
tional Congress of Experimental Psychology which 
met in Paris in 1889, took measures to ascertain 
the relative frequency of casual hallucinations 
amongst sane and healthy persons by question- 
ing some 1 7,000 adults. The results of this census 
will be found set forth in their Report, 1 to which 
reference should be made by those interested in the 
question. But, as a matter of fact, no one doubts 
that if these occurrences are correctly reported, 
something beyond chance coincidence is involved. 
If the evidence for death apparitions and similar 
phenomena is not accepted at its face value, it is be- 
cause the public in general feel a distrust, founded 
on experience in other fields, for dramatic recitals 
of personal experience. It may be admitted at once 

1 Published in Proc. S. P. R., vol. x., pp. 25-422. 



TELE PA THIC HA LL UCINA TIONS. 237 

that our own investigations go some way to confirm 
this distrust. It has been shown from the analysis 
of the evidence quoted in Chapter V., and again in 
that dealt with in Chapters IX., X., and XL, that 
there is a marked tendency for an experience of this 
kind to become more impressive in the narration as 
the event recedes into the distance ; and this pro- 
cess of simplification and dramatisation goes on not 
only without, but against, our conscious will, as all 
are aware who have tried to free themselves from 
its pernicious activity. 

The corroborative testimony of others will of 
course do something to lessen this danger. But 
the same causes which affect the testimony of the 
chief witness will, though in a less degree, tend to 
impair the recollection of those who shared in his 
experience at second-hand. No doubt, when the 
account is corroborated by independent witnesses, 
and the events themselves are not remote in time, 
we may often have a reasonable assurance that the 
central incident at least is correctly reported. But 
the only corroboration which can be regarded as 
conclusive is that which is afforded by a written 
note made before the event, to which his experience 
is presumed to have reference, was known to the 
narrator ; and evidence of this kind is rarely forth- 
coming. This circumstance has been made use of 
to discredit testimony on these matters altogether. 
Such an inference, I submit, is unwarrantable. 
There is a certain amount of evidence of the kind 
desired, the evidence, that is, of contemporary letters 



238 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

and diaries ; and each year adds to the sum. That 
there have not been more such cases in the past is 
due to a combination of several causes, carelessness 
and indolence in many cases, in some a superstitious 
dislike of seeming to attach importance to a vision 
of death or disaster by recording it. Again, there 
are the numerous chances of ordinary life which 
operate to prevent a note or letter being written at 
the moment, or which interfere with its ultimate 
preservation. But enough have been preserved to 
make the oft-recurring statement of the narrator, 
" I made a note or wrote a letter at the time but it 
cannot now be found," more plausible than it has 
seemed to some critics of the evidence. 

Ideas and Waking Impressions. 

We have evidence of various kinds for the spon- 
taneous occurrence of some mental action between 
persons at a distance. The following case illustrates 
the transference of an impression, apparently from 
the mind of the mother, which assumed a quasi- 
visual form in the percipient's consciousness. The 
narrator, it should be added, is a well-known scien- 
tific draughtsman. He has had many other ap- 
parently telepathic experiences, some like this of a 
trivial kind, others in connection with events of a 
graver nature. 

I. — From Mr. Keulemans. 

" October 16, 1883. 
" My wife went to reside at the seaside on September 30th 
last, taking with her our youngest child, a boy 13 months old. 



TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATIONS. 239 

" On Wednesday, October 3rd, I felt a strong impression 
that the little fellow was worse (he was in weak health on his 
departure). The idea then prevailed on my mind that he had 
met with a slight accident ; and immediately the picture of 
the bedroom in which he sleeps appeared in my mind's eye. 
It was ^ot the strong sensation of awe or sorrow, as I had often 
experienced before on such occasions ; but, anyhow I fancied 
he had fallen out of the bed, upon chairs, and then rolled down 
upon the floor. This was about 11 a.m., and I at once wrote 
to my wife, asking her to let me know how the little fellow was 
getting on. I thought it rather bold to tell my wife that the 
baby had, to my conviction, really met with an accident, with- 
out being able to produce any confirmatory evidence. Also I 
considered that she would take it as an insinuation of careless- 
ness on her part ; therefore I purposely wrote it as a post 
scriptum. 

" I heard no more about it, and even fancied that this time 
my impression was merely the consequence of anxiety. But 
on Saturday last I went to see my wife and child, and asked 
whether she had taken notice of my advice to protect the baby 
against such an accident. She smiled at first, and then in- 
formed me that he had tumbled out of the bed upon the chairs 
placed at the side, and then found his way upon the floor, 
without being hurt. She further remarked, ' You must have 
been thinking of that when it was just too late, because it hap- 
pened the same day your letter came, some hours previously.' 

I asked her what time of the day it happened. Answer : 'About 

II a.m.' She told me that she heard the baby fall, and at once 
ran upstairs to pick him up. 

" I am certain, without the shadow of a doubt, that I wrote 
immediately after the impression ; and that this was between 
11 and 11.30 in the morning." 

Mr. Gurney adds : " I have seen the letter which Mr. 
Keulemans wrote to his wife. The envelope bears the post- 
mark of Worthing, October 3rd ; and the postscript contains 
the following words : 

" ' Mind little Gaston does not fall out of bed. Put chairs in 
front of it. You know accidents soon happen. The fact is, I 



240 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

am almost certain he has met with such a mishap this very 
morning.' " 

Mrs. Keulemans' aunt supplies the follovrng testimony : 

"36, Teville Street, Worthing. 
" Mrs. Keulemans ( my niece ) and her baby are staying at 
my house. The baby had fallen out of bed the morning of 
the day the letter [/. e , Mr. Keulemans' letter] was received. 

"C. Gray." 

In the next case the information reached the 
percipient's consciousness through a more circuitous 
channel. Professor Alexander, the narrator, was 
holding some sittings for table-turning with some 
friends in Rio de Janeiro. The information was 
conveyed by tilts of the table, as in some experi- 
ments referred to in the last chapter, the thought- 
impulse apparently received from the anxious friends 
at home being thus externalised through the mus- 
cles of the percipient. 

II. — From Professor Alexander. 

Rio de Janeiro, March, 1892. 

" On the 21st of September, 1891. I was seated at the table 
with Dr. Barcellos, his niece Sylvia, and Donna Maria Bar- 
cellos, when the words came, " The vase is broken." We 
asked what vase. " [The vase] at your house, the vase of 
phenic acid." I demanded the hour, and the reply was, " At 
eight o'clock." Of this an immediate note was take at my re- 
quest by one of the children seated at another table. I trans- 
ferred this note to my pocket-book where it reads as 
follows : 

" 21st of September, i8gi. — O vaso se quebrou — De sua casa 
— O vaso de acido phenico — As 8 horas."' 

It was as a matter of fact just 8 p.m. Donna 
Maria shortly afterwards went home ; and on asuh- 



TELE PA THIC HALL UCINA TIONS. 24 1 

sequent occasion Dr. Barcellos told Professor Alex- 
ander that 

j 

" the message had been confirmed. u I wrote down a resume 
of his statement, which I now copy from my note-book : 

" ' Donna M. on arriving home was being told of fright, when 
she interrupted them, telling them what had come through 
table. They had just remarked time (eight o'clock) and went 
to give food to sick child — when noise of breakage. They 
exclaimed, " O vaso de acido phenico se quebrou." In truth, 
the jug had been upset by the dog, and had fallen against the 
vase of phenic acid, making the noise.' " 

Neither the vase in question, which was of porcelain, nor 
the water-jug was really broken. The cause of the accident 
was a dog that had got into the room where the sick child lay. 
The animal had, no doubt, endeavoured to drink out of the 
jug, which was standing on the floor near a chair. 

The house where Donna Maria was then living is situated 
about a kilometre's distance from Dr. Barcellos' residence." 

The coincidence in each of these cases is no doubt 
trivial enough, but the multiplication of well 
attested coincidences of the kind would lead most 
of us to readjust our conceptions of the possible 
and the actual. 

Telepathic Dreams. 

Inferences based upon dreams can rarely reach a 
high level of probability. The great number and 
variety of our dreams and their general lack of 
definite outline afford of course wide scope for 
coincidence. But when a dream is so realistic and 
coherent as in the following case, and makes so 
marked an impression on the dreamer as to lead him 



242 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

to record it in his diary on waking, it may fairly be 
said to rise above the common crowd of phantasms 
which throng through the gate of ivory. 

III. — From Mr. Fred. Wingfield. 

" Belle Isle en Terre, Cotes du Nord, France, 

" 20th December, 1883. 

"On the night of Thursday, the 25th of March, 1880, I re- 
tired to bed after reading till late, as is my habit. I dreamed 
that I was lying on my sofa reading, when, looking up, I saw- 
distinctly the figure of my brother, Richard Wingfield-Baker, 
sitting on the chair before me. I dreamed that I spoke to him, 
but that he simply bent his head in reply, rose, and left the 
room. When I awoke I found myself standing with one foot 
on the ground by my bedside, and the other on the bed, try- 
ing to speak and to pronounce my brother's name. So strong 
was the impression as to the reality of his presence, and so 
vivid the whole scene as dreamt, that I left my bedroom to 
search for my brother in the sitting-room. I examined the 
chair where I had seen him seated, I returned to bed, tried to 
fall asleep in the hope of a repetition of the appearance, but 
my mind was too excited, too painfully disturbed, as I recalled 
what I had dreamed. I must have, however, fallen asleep to- 
wards the morning, but when I awoke, the impression of my 
dream was as vivid as ever — and I may add is to this very hour 
equally strong and clear. My sense of impending evil was so 
strong that I at once made a note in my memorandum book of 
this ' appearance,' and added the words, ' God forbid.' 

" Three days afterwards I received the news that my brother, 
Richard Wingfield-Baker, had died on Thursday evening, the 
25th of March, 1880, at 8.30 p.m., from the effects of the terri- 
ble injuries received in a fall while hunting with the Black- 
more Vale hounds." 

Later, Mr. Wingfield sent to Mr. Gurney his 
note-book containing, amongst various business 



TELE PA THIC HALL UCINA TLONS. 243 

memoranda, the following entry : " Appearance, 
Thursday night 25th March, 1880 R.B.W.B. 1 God 
forbid." Mr. Wingfield adds that he has never ex- 
perienced a sensory hallucination, nor any other 
dream of this vivid and distressing character. 

The Prince de Lucinge Faucigny writes that he 
heard an account of this dream and the attendant 
circumstances from Mr. Wingfield on the 4th April, 
1880, i. e. y within ten days of the occurrence. 

It will be observed that in this case the dream 
occurred some hours after the death. This is a fea- 
ture which is found not seldom in the spontaneous 
instances of telepathy. The deferment of the im- 
pression is, however, no real obstacle to the tele- 
pathic explanation ; though of course it to some 
extent lessens the evidential value of a case. We 
find indications of similar delay in the emergence of 
a telepathic impression in many of the experimental 
examples. A more exact parallel, however, is pre- 
sented by the emergence in crystal vision, and 
generally in states of partial dissociation, of impres- 
sions, not necessarily of telepathic origin, received 
hours and even days beforehand, which have waited 
for a favourable opportunity to present themselves, 
occasionally in a hallucinatory form, to the percipi- 
ent's consciousness. 2 

1 Mr. Wingfield explains that when he wrote the initials he intended them 
to stand for his brother — Richard Baker — and another friend, William 
Bigge, to whom also the apparition bore some resemblance. It was not 
until afterwards that he realised that all four initials really represented his 
brother's full name, Richard Baker Wingfield-Baker. See P hantasms of the 
Living, vol. i., pp. 199-201, for a full account of this case. 

2 See the discussion on this subject in Chapter XII. below. 



244 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Telepathic Hallucinations. 

But the strongest evidence for mental action at a 
distance is to be found in the coincidence of a hal- 
lucination with the death or some other crisis in the 
life of the person represented. The evidence in such 
a case is strong, not because a waking hallucination 
differs in kind from a dream ; both in fact may be 
regarded as psychical phenomena of the same class ; 
a hallucination is a waking dream, and a dream 
such as that just quoted is a hallucination which 
occurs in sleep. But whilst dreams are habitual and 
often commonplace experiences, a sensory halluci- 
nation is a comparatively rare event. 

As a matter of fact, not more than one English- 
man in ten 1 can expect to have a well-defined hal- 
lucination in the whole course of his life. It is 
clear, therefore, that the occurrence of an excep- 
tional experience of this nature in close connection 
with an exceptional crisis in the life of a distant 
friend is a much more noteworthy coincidence than 
the occurrence of such a dream even as that reported 
above. Again, the hallucination, since the percipi- 
ent is awake at the time, and since the false sense 
perception enters into competition with the real 
sensations from without, and may be compared and 
associated with external events, is much more likely 
to be remembered correctly. On all grounds, there- 
fore, the evidence of telepathic hallucinations is 

1 More precisely 7.8 per cent, of English men and 12 per cent, of Eng- 
lish women. See Proc. S. P. R., vol. x., p. 39. This estimate, however, 
assumes that all hallucinations are remembered, which is not the case. See 
the discussion on this point in the Census Report, loc. cit., pp, 60-69. 



TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATIONS. 245 

much to be preferred to the evidence derived from 
such feebler and less definite impressions as we 
have hitherto described in this chapter. 1 I will be- 
gin by quoting an auditory case, which originated, 
it would appear, in a dream, and was continued as 
a waking experience. 

IV. — From Miss M. A. King. 

(The account was written during the first half of the year 1889.) 

" Belle Vue, Exeter. 
" I heard a voice say, ' Come to me, I 'm so ill, come to me.' 
This happened at five in the morning, one day in October of 

1 In a book on hallucination and illusion, published in Leipzig in 1894 
{Ueber die Trugwahrnehmung), which is shortly, I understand, to appear 
in an English translation, Herr Edmund Parish essays to prove that all hal- 
lucinations occur in a state of partial dissociation of consciousness ; that their 
■occurrence may, indeed, be regarded as symptomatic of such dissociation. 
In discussing the cases quoted in the Census Report already referred to, he 
•endeavours to shew, not, I think, with entire success, that there are to be 
found, in the narratives of the percipients, other indications of such dissocia- 
tion, or dream-consciousness. The point in itself is not of great evidential 
importance, since we rely on the evidence for telepathy furnished by coinci- 
dent hallucinations, not so much because they are presumably making ex- 
periences, as because they are (1) exceptional, and (2) of such a nature that 
the exact time of their occurrence is clearly fixed and likely to be correctly 
remembered. A coincident dream which chanced to occur in the course 
of a five minutes' nap would furnish equally good evidence, if it could be 
proved that it was as definite and as exceptional. But Herr Parish goes on 
to draw the conclusion that " it would be ridiculous to reckon the number 
of dreams by the number remembered, but it is scarcely less misleading to 
apply the same method of calculation to the waking hallucinations with 
which the International Census is concerned." This conclusion seems to 
me entirely unwarranted, mainly, in addition to the reasons above given for 
drawing a line between dreams and waking hallucinations, on two grounds : 
(1) that it is inconsistent with the facts ascertained in the course of the Cen- 
sus inquiry as to the rate at which hallucinations are forgotten ; (2) that it 
is inconsistent with Parish's own admission, that the dissociation of con- 
sciousness, which is the chief cause of forgetfulness, in the case of what are 
commonly called waking hallucinations, is less profound than in ordinary 
sleep. 



246 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

18880 I was lying awake having been, dreaming vividly. My 
health was perfect, and I was in no grief or anxiety at the 
time. 

" [The impression was that of] some one with whom I was 
most intimate, but whom I had not seen for two months. She 
was at the time 200 miles away, and at that exact time was un- 
dergoing a severe attack and spoke the same words that I 
heard. 

" No other person was present. 

" I have v not had any other experiences of this sort definite 
enough to describe. 

" M. A. King." 

Miss King later informed us that she wrote at 
once to Miss Ridd, the friend whose voice she be- 
lieved herself to hear, giving an account of her ex- 
perience. This letter has not, unfortunately, been 
preserved, but Miss Ridd has confirmed to us Miss 
King's account of its contents. Miss Ridd wrote 
at once in answer to Miss King. The following 
paragraph in this letter from Miss Ridd, which has 
been forwarded for our inspection, refers to Miss 
King's account of her experiences. 

" I didn't mean to tell you about it, but the coincidence is 
so strange I must. Sunday morning about four o'clock I had 
awfully bad pain, thought I was going to die for a few minutes, 
and when I could speak I stretched out my arms to your photo 
and said, ' My Trix, come to me, I 'm so ill, come to me ! ' 
Wasn't it strange ? " 

It will be seen that the evidence in this case that 
Miss King had an unusual and impressive experi- 
ence about the time when her friend was seized 
with a sudden attack of illness is fairly complete. 



TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATIONS. 247 

The exact coincidence in time is not clearly proved ; 
since Miss King in her original account gave 5 a.m. 
as the hour of her experience, whilst Miss Ridd 
was taken ill at 4 a.m. Miss King has had no other 
auditory hallucination. 1 

But it is the visual hallucinations, and especially 
the apparitions of the dying, which as they are the 
most striking are also the most commonly misinter- 
preted phenomena of this type. This misinterpre- 
tation has probably more than any other cause 
prejudiced the reception of the evidence under this 
head brought forward by the Society for Psychical 
Research. The unconscious heritage of a pristine 
animism has led many to regard, or to assume that 
we regard, such hallucinations as in some sense a 
part of the dying man, a double, an astral body, a 
visible soul. But in most cases at any rate we find 
no justification for regarding the vision as other than 
purely subjective. It is just a dream, the product 
of the seer's own phantasy. That in some cases it 
coincides with the death of the person whose image 
is seen does not make the image more real. That 
remains a dream image — but a dream initiated by 
an impulse received from the brain of the dying 
man. 

It may indeed be objected that the transition from 
the experimental instances of apparent telepathy 
dealt with in the last chapter to the apparitions now 
to be discussed is too violent. For the spontaneous 
apparitions differ from the mass of the experimental 

1 For a full account of the case see Proc. S. P. R., x., pp. 289-291. 



248 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

cases in three points : (1) in the much greater 
distance at which the telepathic energy is assumed 
to act ; (2) that, whereas the effects produced by 
experiment for the most part fall below the level 
of actual sensation, the apparitions clearly involve 
a sensory element ; (3) that in those it is the idea 
actually present to the mind of the agent which in- 
trudes into the consciousness of the percipient, whilst 
in these the actual percept represents what can at 
most have occupied but a subordinate place in the 
thoughts of the presumed agent. As regards the first 
point, indeed, we find every gradation of distance be- 
tween agent and percipient in the spontaneous ex- 
amples. (Compare, for instance, Case VII., in the 
present chapter with Cases VI. and VIII.) On the 
second point, it is to be remarked that in some of our 
experiments there is evidence that the transferred 
impression reached the level of a sensory halluci- 
nation. And both as regards this point and as to the 
manner in which the received impression is, ex hypo- 
thesis modified by the percipient's consciousness, we 
have the analogy of dreams to guide us. For dreams 
present every possible degree of externalisation, 
from faint inward impressions to quasi-hallucinatory 
vividness, as in Case III. above; and in dreams it 
seems clear that the dreamer must habitually clothe 
the nucleus of external impression — telepathic or 
normal — with appropriate imagery. But fortunately 
we are in a position to offer direct evidence for the 
position here taken : that the spontaneous appari- 
tions of the dying may be classed in the same gen- 



TELE PA THIC HALL UCLNA TIONS. 249 

eral category as the experimental transference of 
the images of cards, numbers, or diagrams. 

Some of the most remarkable apparitions of which 
we have authentic record have been produced ex- 
perimentally. 1 One instance may be quoted here. 
The narrator is a friend of my own, who had read 
accounts of similar successful experiments published 
in Phantasms of the Living. The letter, from which 
the following extract is taken, is dated 16th Novem- 
ber, 1886. 

V. — From the Rev. Clarence Godfrey. 

" I was so impressed by the account on p. 105 that I deter- 
mined to put the matter to an experiment. 

"Retiring at 10.45 [on the 15th November, 1886], I deter- 
mined to appear, if possible, to a friend, and accordingly I set 
myself to work with all the volitional and determinative energy 
which I possess, to stand at the foot of her bed. I need not 
say that I never dropped the slightest hint beforehand as to my 
intention, such as could mar the experiment, nor had I men- 
tioned the subject to her. As the ' agent ' I may describe my 
own experiences. 

" Undoubtedly the imaginative faculty was brought exten- 
sively into play, as well as the volitional, for I endeavoured to 
translate myself, spiritually, into her room, and to attract her 
attention, as it were, while standing there. My effort was 
sustained for perhaps eight minutes, after which I felt tired, 
and was soon asleep. 

" The next thing I was conscious of was meeting the lady 
next morning (i. e., in a dream, I suppose ? ) and asking her at 
once if she had seen me last night. The reply came, * Yes.' 
i How ? ' I inquired. Then in words strangely clear and low, 
like a well audible whisper, came the answer, ' I was sitting 

1 See Phantasms of the Living, vol. i., pp. 101-120, Apparitions and 
Thought- Transference, pp. 226-246, and Proc. S. P. P., vol. x., pp. 28- 
30, etc. 



250 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

beside you.' These words, so clear, awoke me instantly, and I 
felt I must have been dreaming ; but on reflection I remem- 
bered what I had been ' willing ' before I fell asleep, and it 
struck me, ' This must be a reflex action from the percipient.' 
My watch showed 3.40 a.m. The following is what I wrote 
immediately in pencil, standing in my night-dress : 'As I 
reflected upon those clear words, they struck me as being quite 
intuitive, I mean subjective, and to have proceeded from within, 
as my own conviction, rather than a communication from any 
one else. And yet I can't remember her face at all, as one can 
after a vivid dream ! ' . 

" But the words were uttered in a clear, quick tone, which 
was most remarkable, and awoke me at once. 

" My friend, in the note with which she sent me the enclosed 
account of her own experience, says : ' I remember the man 
put all the lamps out soon after I came upstairs, and that is 
only done about a quarter to four.' " 

Mr. Godfrey received from the percipient on the 
1 6th November an account of her side of the ex- 
perience, and at his request she wrote as follows : 

"Yesterday — viz., the morning of November 16th, 1886 — 
about half-past three o'clock, I woke up with a start and an 
idea that some one had come into the room. I heard a curious 
sound, but fancied it might be the birds in the ivy outside. 
Next I experienced a strange restless longing to leave the 
room and go downstairs. This feeling became so overpower- 
ing that at last I rose and lit a candle, and went down, think- 
ing if I could get some soda water it might have a quieting 
effect. On returning to my room I saw Mr. Godfrey 
standing under the large window on the staircase. He was 
dressed in his usual style, and with an expression on his face 
that I have noticed when he has been looking very earnestly 
at anything. He stood there, and I held up the candle and 
gazed at him for three or four seconds in utter amazement, 
and then, as I passed up the staircase, he disappeared. The 
impression left on my mind was so vivid that I fully intended 



TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATIONS. 2$ I 

waking a friend who occupied the same room as myself, but 
remembering that I should only be laughed at as romantic 
and imaginative, refrained from doing so. 

" I was not frightened at the appearance of Mr. Godfrey, 
but felt much excited, and could not sleep afterwards." 

On the 2 1 st of the same month I heard a full 
account of the incident given above from Mr. 

Godfrey, and on the day following from Mrs. . 

Mrs. told me that the figure appeared quite 

distinct and lifelike at first, though she could not 
remember to have noticed more than the upper 
part of the body. As she looked, it grew more and 

more shadowy, and finally faded away. Mrs. , 

it should be added, told me that she had previously 
seen two phantasmal figures representing a parent 
whom she had recently lost. 1 

Mr. Godfrey at our request made two other 

trials, without, of course, letting Mrs. know his 

intention. The first of these attempts was without 
result, owing perhaps to the date chosen, as he was 
aware at the time, being unsuitable. But in a 
trial made on the 7th December, 1886, complete 

success was again attained. Mrs. has had no 

visual hallucinations except on the occasions 
mentioned. 

It will be noticed that the dress of the apparition 
represented that in which the percipient was 
accustomed to see Mr. Godfrey, not the dress which 
he was actually wearing at the time. If the image 

1 These details are taken from notes made by me immediately after the 
interview. 



2 52 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

in these cases is in fact nothing but the outward 
expression of the percipient's thought, this result 
is of course what we should naturally expect to 
find. In a more recent case of the kind the agent, 
Mr. F. W. Rose, made an attempt to impress two 
ladies, mother and daughter, living in the same 
house. On the first occasion, the ladies passed a 
disturbed night, but there was nothing to connect 
the disturbance with the agent ; on the second 
occasion, the elder lady saw an apparition of Mr. 
Rose, and the younger lady was again restless and 
disturbed. 1 

We may now pass to the consideration of spon- 
taneous telepathic hallucinations. In the first case 
to be quoted it is difficult to know whether to class 
the percipient's vision as an illusion or a hallucina- 
tion. At any rate, it seems to have been excep- 
tional if not actually unique in his experience. 

VI. — From Prince Victor Duleep Singh. 

"Highclere Castle, Newbury, November 8, 1894. 

" On Saturday, October 21, 1893, I was in Berlin with Lord 
Carnarvon. We went to a theatre together and returned be- 
fore midnight. I went to bed, leaving, as I always do, a 
bright light in the room (electric light). As I lay in bed I 
found myself looking at an oleograph which hung on the wall 
opposite my bed. I saw distinctly the face of my father, the 
Maharajah Duleep Singh, looking at me, as it were out of this 
picture ; not like a portrait of him, but his real head. The 
head about filled the picture frame. I continued looking and 
still saw my father looking at me with an intent expression. 
Though not in the least alarmed, I was so puzzled that I got 

1 Journal, S. P. R., May, 1896. 



TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATIONS. 253 

out of bed to see what the picture really was. It was an 
oleograph commonplace picture of a girl holding a rose and 
leaning out of a balcony, an arch forming a background. 
The girl's face was quite small, whereas my father's head was 
the size of life and filled the frame. 

" I was in no special anxiety about my father at the time, and 
had for some years known him to be seriously out of health ; 
but there had been no news to alarm me about him. 

" Next morning (Sunday) I told the incident to Lord 
Carnarvon. 

"That evening (Sunday), late, on returning home, Lord 
Carnarvon brought two telegrams into my room and handed 
them to me. I said at once, ' My father is dead.' That was 
the fact. He had had an apoplectic seizure on the Saturday 
evening at about nine o'clock, from which he never recovered, 
but continued unconscious and died on the Sunday, early in 
the afternoon. My father had often said to me that if I was 
not with him when he died he would try and come to me. 

" I am not subject to hallucinations, and have only once had 
any similar experience, when, as a schoolboy, I fancied I saw 
the figure of a dead schoolboy who had died in the room 
which I slept in with my brother ; but I attached no import- 
ance to this. 

"Victor Duleep Singh." 

Lord Carnarvon writes : 

" I can confirm Prince V. Duleep Singh's account. I heard 
the incident from him on the Sunday morning. The same 
evening, at about 12 p.m., he received a telegram notifying 
him of his father's sudden illness, and death. We had no 
knowledge of his father's illness. He has never told me of 
any similar previous occurrence. 

" Carnarvon." 

The Maharajah Duleep Singh died on Sunday, October 
22, 1893. 

In the next case we seem to have one of those 
completely externalised apparitions which cheat 



254 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

the senses by a lifelike counterfeit of the human 
figure. The percipient's own account of the vision, 
it will be seen, is corroborated by an entry in a 
diary made within 24 hours of the occurrence. 
That the entry was not made until the fact of the 
death was known is of course to be regretted, but 
it can hardly be contended that this circumstance 
detracts materially from its evidential value. 

VII. — From Miss Berta Hurly. 

" Waterbeach Vicarage, Cambridge, February, 1890. 

" In the spring and summer of 1886 I often visited a poor 
woman called Evans, who lived in our parish, Caynham. She 
was very ill with a painful disease, and it was, as she said, a 
great pleasure when I went to see her ; and I frequently sat 
with her and read to her. Towards the middle of October 
she was evidently growing weaker, but there seemed no 
immediate danger. I had not called on her for several days, 
and one evening I was standing in the dining-room after 
dinner with the rest of the family, when I saw the figure of a 
woman dressed like Mrs. Evans, in large apron and muslin 
cap, pass across the room from one door to the other, where 
she disappeared. I said, 'Who is that?' My mother said, 
' What do you mean ? ' and I said, ' That woman who has just 
come in and walked over to the other door.' They all 
laughed at me, and said I was dreaming, but I felt sure it was 
Mrs. Evans, and next morning we heard she was dead. 

"Berta Hurly." 

Miss Hurly's mother writes : 

" On referring to my diary for the month of October, 1886, 
I find the following entry : ' 19th. Berta startled us all after 
dinner, about 8.30 last evening, by saying she saw the figure 
of a woman pass across the dining-room, and that it was 
Mrs. Evans. This morning we heard the poor woman is 



TELE PA THIC HA LL UCINA TIONS. 2$$ 

dead.' On inquiring at the cottage we found she had become 
wandering in her mind, and at times unconscious, about the 
time she appeared to Berta, and died towards morning. 

" Annie Ross. 

"February 25, 1890." 

It will have been observed that in each of the 
cases last quoted the vision occurred within twelve 
hours, or a little more, of the death of the person 
represented. The fact that a man can die but once 
gives a coincidence of this kind a high evidential 
value, for the probability that anyone will die on a 
given day, according to the tables of mortality, is 
but one in 19,000. And since we have, in the 
Census Report already referred to, trustworthy 
estimates of the frequency of casual hallucinations, 
the necessary data are at hand for calculating what 
are the indications that the coincidence of such 
apparitions with death could be due to chance. 
It is in fact shewn in the Report 1 that the hallucina- 
tions coincident with death reported in the course 
of that inquiry are about 400 times more numer- 
ous than chance would allow. This estimate takes 
no account of hallucinations occurring more than 
twelve hours from the death. But though the 
coincidence in these cases is not so striking, it is 
still sufficiently remarkable, and the instances 
sufficiently numerous, to lead one again to look for 
some other explanation than chance. 

The following case is a good example. The 
apparition, it will be seen, occurred within thirty- 

1 Proc. S. P. R., vol. x., pp. 245-251. 



256 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

two hours of the death, during a brief fatal illness 
of which the percipient had no knowledge. 

VIII. — From Miss Hervey. 

"9, Tavistock Crescent, W., April 28, 1892. 

" I saw the figure of my cousin (a nurse in Dublin) coming 
upstairs dressed in grey. I was in Tasmania, and the time that 
I saw her was between 6 and 7 p.m., on April 21, 1888. 

" I had just come in from a ride and was in the best of 
health and spirits. I was between 31 and 32 years of age. 

" I had lived with my cousin, and we were the greatest of 
friends, but my going to Tasmania in 1887 had, of course, 
separated us. She was a nurse, and at the time I saw her in 
April, 1888, she was dying of typhus fever, a fact unknown to 
me till 6 weeks after her death. Her illness lasted only 5 
days, and I heard of her death at the same time as of her 
illness. 

" There was no one present with me at the time, but I narrated 
what I had seen to the friend with whom I was living, and 
asked why my cousin, Ethel B., should have been dressed in 
grey. My friend said that was the dress of the nurses in that 
particular hospital ; a fact unknown to me. 

" The impression of seeing my cousin was so vivid that I 
wrote a long letter to her that night, saying I had had this 
vision. The letter, arriving after she was dead, was returned 
to me and I destroyed it. 

" Rose B. E. I. Hervey." 

" I called on Miss Hervey on the 21st July, 1892. 
She was staying at the time of her experience with 
Lady H. Miss Hervey and Lady H. had just 
returned from a drive, and Miss Hervey was leav- 
ing her room to cross the upper landing to Lady 
H's room to have tea. On passing the stairs she 
saw the figure coming up. She recognised it at 



TELE PA THIC HA LL UCINA TIONS. 2$? 

once and ran away to Lady H., without waiting to 
see the figure disappear, and told her what she had 
seen. Lady H. laughed at her, but told her to note 
it in her diary. This Miss Hervey did. I saw the 
entry: ' Saturday, April 21st, 1888, 6p.m. Vision 
of [nickname given] on landing in grey dress.' 
The news of death did not arrive till June." 1 

Lady H. writes : 

" July 3o» 1893. 

" Dear Sir, — Your letter dated April 6th has followed me 
back to England, and I should have answered it a week or 
two sooner, but I thought my son from Tasmania might be 
able to throw some light on your search for a definite 
corroboration of Miss Hervey's account of an apparition 
which she tells you she saw when in Tasmania with us in 1888. 
He, however, can do little more than I can for its confirma- 
tion. He recollects that Miss Hervey made such a statement 
at the time, and I seem to remember something about it, but 
nothing really definite." 

From a copy of the letter announcing the fact, 
we learn that the death occurred at 4.30 p.m. on 
Sunday, April 22nd. The writer speaks of Miss B. as 
having been " heavy with fever all through." The 
difference of time between Tasmania and Dublin is 
about ten hours, and the vision therefore preceded 
the death by thirty-two hours. It should be added 
that the dress of the nurses of the hospital in ques- 
tion consists of a white, blue, and red check cotton, 
producing a somewhat greyish effect at a little 
distance. Miss Hervey has had one other visual 

1 This extract is copied from my notes made immediately after the 
interview. 
17 



258 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

hallucination, as a child of ten. This vision also is 
believed to have coincided with a death. 

There is a detailed account given by Mme. de 
Maceine in a letter to Professor Richet 1 of the ap- 
parition of Rubinstein five days before his death. 
The case is interesting because the apparition, 
though distinct and clearly recognised, was seen 
only out of the "corner of the eye," and as Mme. 
de Maceine turned round to face the spot where 
the apparition seemed to be it vanished. The 
vision appeared three times at intervals of a few 
minutes. 

In the cases of hallucination hitherto cited, with 
the doubtful exception of Miss Hervey's narrative, 
there is no evidence that the impression telepathi- 
cally transferred included any element beyond the 
simple idea of the agent. Given such an idea, the 
percipient's mind would be equal to the task of 
clothing it with the appropriate imagery. But on 
the analogy of many experimental cases, and of 
such spontaneous incidents as Mr. Keulemans' 
vision of the child falling out of bed, we should 
anticipate that hallucinatory visions would occa- 
sionally embody the agent's thoughts in a detailed 
form. And there are a few well attested cases that 
would seem to require such an explanation. 

If the following incident is correctly described, it 
is. difficult to suppose that the dress and accessories 
of the figure could have been derived from the per- 
cipient's imagination. 

1 Annales des Sciences Psychiques, May-June, 1896. 



TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATIONS. 259 

IX. — From Frances Reddell. 

"Antony, Torpoint, Devonshire. 

"December, 14th, 1882. 

" Helen Alexander (maid to Lady Waldegrave) was lying 
here very ill with typhoid fever, and was attended by me. I 
was standing at the table by her bedside, pouring out her 
medicine, at about four o'clock in the morning of the 4th 
October, 1880. I heard the call-bell ring (this had been heard 
twice before during the night in that same week), and was 
attracted by the door of the room opening, and by seeing a 
person entering the room whom I instantly felt to be the 
mother of the sick woman. She had a brass candlestick in 
her hand, a red shawl over her shoulders, and a flannel petti- 
coat on which had a hole in the front. I looked at her as 
much as to say, ' I am glad you have come,' but the woman 
looked at me sternly, as much as to say, ' Why wasn't I sent 
for before?' I gave the medicine to Helen Alexander, and 
then turned round to speak to the vision, but no one was 
there. She had gone. She was a short, dark person, and very 
stout. At about six o'clock that morning Helen Alexander 
died. Two days after, her parents and sister came to Antony, 
and arrived between one and two o'clock in the morning ; I 
and another maid let them in, and it gave me a great turn 
when I saw the living likeness of the vision I had seen two 
nights before. I told the sister about the vision, and she said 
that the description of the dress exactly answered to her 
mother's, and that they had brass candlesticks at home exactly 
like the one described. There was not the slightest resem- 
blance between the mother and daughter. 

" Frances Rfddell." 

In a letter dated 31st December, 1883, after giv- 
ing details of the illness and repeating Frances 
ReddeH's account of the apparition, Mrs. Pole- 
Carew proceeds as follows : 



260 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

" Reddell told me and my daughter of the apparition, about 
an hour after Helen's death, prefacing with, ' I am not super- 
stitious or nervous, and I wasn't the least frightened, but her 
mother came last night,' and she then told the story, giv- 
ing a careful description of the figure she had seen. The 
relations were asked to come to the funeral, and the father, 
mother and sister came, and in the mother Reddell recognised 
the apparition, as I did also, for Reddell's description had 
been most accurate, even to the expression, which she had 
ascribed to annoyance, but which was due to deafness. It 
was judged best not to speak about it to the mother, but Red- 
dell told the sister, who said the description of the figure cor- 
responded exactly with the probable appearance of her mother 
if roused in the night ; that they had exactly such a candle- 
stick at home, and that there was a hole in her mother's 
petticoat produced by the way she always wore it. It seems 
curious that neither Helen nor her mother appeared to be 
aware of the visit. Neither of them, at any rate, ever spoke 
of having seen the other, nor even of having dreamt of having 
done so. 

" F. A. Pole-Carew." 

Frances Reddell states that she has never had 
any hallucination, or any odd experience of any 
kind, except on this one occasion. The Hon. Mrs. 
Lyttelton, of the Vicarage, Eccles, who knows her, 
tells us that "she appears to be a most matter-of- 
fact person, and was apparently most impressed 
by the fact that she saw a hole in the mothers 
flannel petticoat, made by the busk of her stays, 
reproduced in the apparition." 

In this case we may suppose that the vision may 
have reflected a dream of the dying girl's. There 
are other recorded visions at the bedside of the dy- 
ing which may probably have a similar explanation. 



TELE PA TH1 C HA LL UCINA TIONS. 26 1 

Collective Hallucinations. 

So far we have dealt with subjective impres- 
sions of a single percipient. It is to be noted in- 
deed that hallucinations are commonly experienced 
only when the percipient is alone ; the mental pre- 
occupation caused by the presence of others being 
no doubt unfavourable to their occurrence. Miss 
Hurly's case, quoted above, is quite exceptional in 
this respect. It does, however, occasionally hap- 
pen that an impression is shared by two or more 
persons. Sometimes the percipients are at a dis- 
tance from each other and their impressions are dif- 
ferent. Thus, Sir Lawrence Jones and his brother, 
the one being at Bury St. Edmunds, the other in 
Westminster, each had an unusual experience on 
the night of their father's death. Sir L. Jones 
awoke from sleep with the exclamation, " Some- 
thing dreadful is happening"; whilst Mr. Herbert 
Jones was awakened, hearing his name called twice, 
and afterwards heard a sound as of something heavy 
being carried down the stairs. The house was in 
fact quite silent. 1 In other cases — and this is the 
common type — the percipients are together, and in 
such a case their impressions are generally of the 
same kind. If one sees a figure, all see a figure, if 
one hears a voice, all hear a voice. 

In the Census Report already referred to there 
are included accounts of no less than 95 collective 
visual hallucinations, of which 67 took the form of 
realistic apparitions of the human figure. Of these, 

1 Apparitions and Thought-Transference, pp. 293-295. 



262 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

2 J represented living persons. Many of these cases 
are, no doubt, of doubtful value, either from the 
length of time which had elapsed between the 
event and its record, or because the circumstances 
under which the apparition was seen rendered it 
conceivable that it might have been a real figure 
which eluded observation in disappearing. Enough 
well authenticated cases remain, it may fairly be 
held, to make it probable that collective percipience 
of hallucinatory impressions does occur. I select 
as an example the following case, partly because 
the record was written within a few days of the 
experience, partly because the difference in the 
impressions of the two percipients — a rare feat- 
ure in the cases reported to us — is interesting 
and instructive. 

X — From Dr. VV. O. S. 

Dr. W. O. S. writes to Dr. Hodgson from Al- 
bany, New York, on the ioth September, 1888, 
giving an account of an apparition which he had 
seen on September 3rd. He and his wife occupy 
two adjoining bedrooms ; the door between the 
rooms is wide open, the outer doors are locked. 
On the date in question, he writes, 

" I undressed and went to bed about n, and soon was asleep. 
In the neighbourhood of 4 a.m. I was awakened by a strong 
light in my face. I awoke and thought I saw my wife stand- 
ing at Fig. 3, as she was to rise at 5.30 to take an early train. 
The light was so bright and pervading that I spoke, but got no 
answer. As I spoke, the figure retreated to Fig. 4, and as 
gradually faded to a spot at Fig. 5. The noiseless shifting of 



TELE PA THIC HALLUCINA TIONS. 



263 



the light made me think it was a servant in the hall and the 
light was thrown through the keyhole as she moved. That 
could not be, as some clothing covered the keyhole. I then 
thought a burglar must be in the room, as the light settled near 
a large safe in my room. Thereupon I called loudly to my 
wife, and sprang to light a light. As I called her name she 
suddenly awoke, and called out, ' What is that bright light in 
your room ? ' I lit the gas and searched (there had been no 
light in either room). Everything was undisturbed. 



" T 



ST3 
5 



3 , 

floe* 



BCD R0°" j 



Yaro 



" My wife left on the early train. I attended to my work as 
usual. At noon, when I reached home, the servant who 
answers the door informed me that a man had been to my 
office to see about a certificate for a young lady who had died 
suddenly early that morning from a hemorrhage from the lungs. 
She died about one o'clock — the figure I saw about four o'clock. 
There was but little resemblance between the two, as far as I 
noticed, except height and figure. The faces were not unlike, 
except that the apparition seemed considerably older. I had 
seen the young lady the evening before, but, although much 
interested in the case, did not consider it immediately serious. 
She had been in excellent health up to within two days of her 
death. At first she spit a little blood, from a strain. When 
she was taken with the severe hemorrhage, and choked to 
death, she called for help and for me. 

" This is the first experience of the kind I have ever had, or 



264 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

personally have known about. It was very clear — the figure or 
apparition — at first, but rapidly faded. My wife remarked the 
light before I had spoken anything except her name. When I 
awake I am wide awake in an instant, as I am accustomed to 
answer a telephone in the hall and my office-bell at night." 

From Mrs. W. O. S. 

" Albany, September 27, 1888. 
" On the morning of September 4 I was suddenly awakened 
out of a sound sleep by my husband's calling ,to me from an 
adjoining room. Before I answered him I was struck with the 
fact that although the green shade to his window was drawn 
down, his room seemed flooded by a soft yellow light, while my 
chamber, with the window on the same side as his, and with the 
shade drawn up, was dark. The first thing I said was, ' What 
is that light ? ' He replied he didn't know. I then got up and 
went into his room, which was still quite light. The light faded 
away in a moment or two. The shade was down all the time. 
When I went back to my room I saw that it was a few moments 
after four." 

In answer to further questions, Mrs. W. O. S. 
adds : 

" October 16, 1888. 
" In regard to the light in my husband's room, it seemed to 
me to be perhaps more in the corner between his window and 
my door, although it was faintly distributed through the room. 
When I first saw the light (lying in bed) it was brilliant, but I 
only commanded a view of the corner of his room, between his 
window and my door. When I reached the door the light had 
begun to fade, though it seemed brighter in the doorway where 
I stood than elsewhere. My husband seemed greatly perplexed, 
and said, ' How strange ! I thought surely there was a woman 
in my room.' I said, ' Did you think it was I ? ' He said, ' At 
first, of course, I thought so, but when I rubbed my eyes I 

saw it was not. It looked some like Mrs. B ' (another 

patient of his, — not the girl who died that night). He, more- 



TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATIONS. 265 

over, said that the figure never seemed to look directly at him, 
but towards the wall beyond his bed ; and that the figure 
seemed clothed in white, or something very light. That was 
all he said, except that later, when he knew the girl was dead, 
and I asked him if the figure at all resembled her, he said, 
'Yes, it did look like her, only older.' " * 

Collective percipience forms one of the most in- 
teresting problems presented by this inquiry. It 
need hardly perhaps be said that we do not regard 
it as evidence that the thing seen is in any sense 
objective. If we may infer, as in such cases as that 
last quoted we seem entitled to infer, that the vision 
was not merely an illusion, and was not suggested 
by one percipient to the other verbally, we have two 
alternative hypotheses : (i) that each percipient is 
affected independently by a distant mind ; or (2) 
that the hallucination, originating telepathically or 
otherwise in one percipient, is transferred telepath- 
ically to his co-percipient. The first explanation 
seems the simplest and most probable when the two 
percipients are a considerable distance apart. But 
instances of this kind, as already said, are rare. The 
second explanation is that which is to be preferred 
in most cases, for several reasons ; of which the 
chief is that the impressions of two percipients when 
in the same locality are, as said, nearly always 
similar ; whereas if independently originated we 
should expect them to be frequently dissimilar, 
since we have reason to suppose that the precise 
form in which the telepathic impulse presents itself 
to consciousness is determined, as a rule, not by the 

1 Proc. American S, P. P., pp. 405-408. 



266 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

nature of the impulse itself, but by the idiosyn- 
crasy of the percipient. Moreover, collective hallu- 
cinations occasionally take grotesque shapes, forms 
of animals, vague lights, and inanimate objects. 
Further instances of collective hallucinations are 
quoted in the next chapter, and a full discussion on 
the points raised will be found in the Census Re- 
port already referred to. 

From this brief review of the evidence — experi- 
mental and spontaneous — for telepathic communi- 
cation, many topics of interest have necessarily 
been excluded. In the present chapter the ex- 
amples have been selected mainly from the class of 
visual hallucinations, because these phenomena are 
in themselves more impressive, and explanation by 
chance coincidence is more obviously precluded. 
But the narratives here quoted, though they repre- 
sent the evidence, either as regards its amount or 
its variety, very imperfectly, are sufficient to afford 
some idea of the character and importance of the 
problems to be solved. First amongst these prob- 
lems is the nature of the agency by which the re- 
sults are brought about. On this question there 
has been speculation enough, from the first crude 
analogy of two tuning-forks sounding in unison, to 
elaborate theories, with experimental demonstra- 
tion, of radiant neuric force, or a comfortable be- 
lief in the omnipotence of the ether. But in truth 
we know neither the medium by which the tele- 
pathic impulse is conveyed, nor the organ by which 
the impulse is originated or received. By some, 



TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATIONS. 267 

indeed, it is held that telepathy is but one of a 
group of transcendent faculties, which point to a 
world beyond the world of sight and touch : the 
germ of powers which cannot reach their full growth 
until man has ceased to be man. Such a view is 
perhaps little more than the expression of the diffi- 
culties involved in any physical explanation. That 
mind should reach to mind over miles of interven- 
ing space without discoverable apparatus may, in- 
deed, appear to call for supernatural means. But 
so to the peasant might appear the discovery of 
rayless stars, the analysis of the sun's photosphere, 
or the familiar miracles of the electric current. 
The properties of the ether and the mechanism 
and functions of the nervous system, it may be sug- 
gested, are still imperfectly explored ; and it would 
be rash to assert that the nerve-changes which are 
the presumed accompaniment of thought could not 
be conveyed by ethereal undulations to a kindred 
brain over distances at least as great as those which 
are indicated by some of our thought-transference 
experiments. Even the greatest distance vouched 
for in the spontaneous cases of death-apparitions — 
even the whole diameter of the earth — would be an 
insignificant fraction of the distance traversed by 
the waves of ether which strike upon our retina 
the image of a star. 



CHAPTER IX. 

GHOSTS. 

THE subject-matter of this and the following 
chapter will be those apparitions and hallu- 
cinatory phenomena which, whilst bearing- some 
marks of an origin external to the percipient's or- 
ganism, are not prima facie connected with the 
agency of any living person. Such apparitions are 
roughly described in popular parlance as Ghosts, 
The present chapter will deal mainly with isolated, 
non-recurrent phantasms — ghosts at large ; whilst 
the next will treat of phantasms tending to recur 
in connection with particular localities — Haunted 
Houses. The classification may not be a scientific 
one ; it is possible that the same category may, 
with fuller knowledge, be found to include re- 
motely related phenomena. But it is practically 
convenient in the present stage of the inquiry, in 
default of the materials for a scientific grouping, 
to adopt the intelligible if superficial classification 
ready to hand. 

The primitive hypothesis that " ghosts" are the 
spirits of deceased persons, walking the earth in 
quasi-material forms, capable of uttering expressive 
sighs, of holding familiar intercourse with their 

268 



GHOSTS. 269 

survivors, and of displacing the household furni- 
ture, would probably find scanty support, if thus 
crudely expressed, amongst educated persons. Cer- 
tainly it would be difficult for anyone familiar with 
the evidence amassed by the Society for Psychical 
Research to acknowledge such a view in its original 
simplicity. 

It is not that this hypothesis has fallen by the 
weight of argument and evidence arrayed against 
it ; it has merely shared in that general euthanasia 
which has overtaken many other pious opinions 
found inadequate to the facts. It has silently 
dropped out of view. But, nevertheless, in the 
belief certainly of many of those who have con- 
tributed experiences of their own to our collection, 
and of nearly all those who have recorded for us 
experiences related to them by others, the " ghost," 
the thing seen or heard, manifests intelligence, is 
capable of purposive action, and bears a definite 
relation to some deceased person. 

Probably the conception of that relation held by 
some of those who have narrated for us their per- 
sonal experiences differs but little from that of the 
Theosophists, who talk glibly of ''astral bodies 5 ' 
and " decaying shells." By those, however, who 
have realised the enormous practical difficulties in- 
cident to any physical explanation, however at- 
tenuated, the relation is no doubt conceived as 
similar to that suggested in the previous chapter 
to exist between the apparition seen at the time of 
a death and the person whom it resembles. It is 



270 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC A I RESEARCH. 

vaguely recognised, in short, that the phenomena 
are hallucinatory, but it is held that the hallucina- 
tions are in some sense due to the agency of a de- 
ceased person ; that they are the reflection of a 
conscious personality, the expression of a deliber- 
ate attempt on the part of a spirit to communicate 
with us, or, if that conception should be found too 
definite, that they represent in some way the in- 
coherent dreams, the vague reminiscences of an- 
other state of existence. 

In examining the evidence for what purport to 
be phantasms of the dead, it is essential to bear in 
mind the pre-existence in popular belief of some 
theory of this kind. It is certain that many of the 
witnesses, whose testimony is cited, believed that 
the things which they described are to be attributed 
to the agency of spirits, more particularly of spirits 
of dead men and women. It can be demonstrated, 
from a comparison of narratives written down long 
after the event, and of second-hand accounts, with 
good recent first-hand cases, that a belief of this 
kind has frequently operated, wherever indistinct- 
ness of memory or a lessened sense of personal 
responsibility has afforded the occasion, to sophisti- 
cate the record and shape it into conformity with 
itself. 1 It is probable that, even in quite recent 
cases, the presence of some such half-recognised 
belief has had its influence in giving definition 
and colour to experiences in themselves dim and 
elusive. 

1 See the discussion at the beginning of the next chapter on this point. 



GHOSTS. 271 

To us at any rate these phenomena are hallu- 
cinations in the first instance, whatever else they 
may be. And, in the absence of any corroborative 
circumstance, we have no ground for regarding 
them as having more significance than dreams, the 
mere creatures of the percipient's own imagination. 
But though, no doubt, the great mass of apparitions 
of this kind, such as those occurring shortly after 
the death of a friend, 1 when the memory of him is 
still vividly present with those who survive, must 
be regarded, from an evidential standpoint, as 
purely subjective appearances, there are cases which 
afford evidence of some external cause. This evid- 
ence may be of several kinds. 

Collective Apparitions, (a.) Unrecognised. 

1. The phantasm, visual or auditory, may be per- 
ceived by two or more persons simultaneously. 
The collectivity of a percept is not, indeed, in it- 
self a proof of the reality of the thing perceived. 
As we have seen in the last chapter, the explana- 
tion of collective hallucinations which presents the 
least theoretical difficulties, and is, perhaps, most 
in accordance with the facts at present known, is 
that an impression originates primarily in one of 
the percipients and is transferred from him to his 
co-percipients. In the case of phantasms of the 
living, there are grounds in some cases for attribut- 

1 See, however, the discussion in the Report on the Census of Hallucina- 
tions {Proc. S. P. P., x., pp. 376-7) for a presentation of the evidential 
aspect of apparitions occurring at about the time of death. 



272 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

ing the hallucination in the original percipient to 
an impulse received from some living person at a 
distance. But in other instances the phantasm 
would seem to be as purely subjective as the hallu- 
cinations of delirium. Many collective cases cer- 
tainly do not suggest external agency of any kind. 
Thus some are concerned with inanimate objects. 
The late Mr. E. M. Ward, R.A., and Mrs. Ward 
on one occasion saw in their bedroom two small 
pear-shaped lights which afterwards broke up into 
small luminous fragments. 1 Another narrator, Mrs. 
Savile Lumley, writes : " Many years ago, while 
taking a lesson in drilling, in the forenoon, I and 
another girl distinctly saw a chair, over which we 
felt we must fall, and called out to each other to 
avoid it ; but no chair was there." 2 Another lady, 
Miss Foy, tells us that she was troubled for some 
time with a hallucinatory skeleton, which on one 
occasion appears to have been perceived by some 
one in her company, to whom no hint of any kind 
had been given. The Rev. A. T. S. Goodrick 
and a friend, walking " across a moor in Suther- 
landshire, saw a ball of fire, about the size of 
an eighteen-pound cannon-ball, of an orange-red 
colour, which moved forward a few inches in front 
of them " 3 ; and the records of haunted houses 
contain many instances of lights seen by several 
persons simultaneously, which in some cases at any 
rate appear to have been hallucinatory. Collective 

1 Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii., p. 193. 

2 Proc. S. P. R., x., p. 323 (footnote). 

3 Apparitions and Thought-Transference , p. 279. 



GHOSTS. 273 

hallucinations of animals are not infrequent. Thus 
Mrs. Greiffenberg and her daughter-in-law on two 
occasions saw a spectral white cat with green eyes 
and an uncanny appearance. 1 Mr. and Mrs. Benja- 
min Potter saw a large beast like a bull, which 
came close to them, and disappeared like a shadow 
when struck at. 2 There are several other cases of 
the kind in our collection. Cases such as these 
clearly suggest the transference of a purely subject- 
ive hallucination rather than the vision of some 
spiritual reality. There is a curious case of which 
we received an account in 1882, which may appro- 
priately be quoted here : 

No. I — Mrs. E. F. writes (Feb. 7, 1882,) that she and her 
sister with a maidservant were returning from church one Sun- 
day evening, ten or twelve years previously. There was a 
thick fog, and the moon was at the full. Mrs. E. F. saw a man 
close to them and pulled her sister's sleeve, whispering to let 
him pass. " As I spoke, the man disappeared — it seemed into 
C.'s dress ; neither C. nor the maid had seen him, and he had 
made no sound. In another moment we were all bewildered at 
the sight around us ; it was as if we were in a crowded street ; 
innumerable figures were around us, men, women, children, and 
dogs ; all were moving briskly about, some singly, others in 
groups, all without a sound ; they appeared mist-like. There 
was a broad strip of grass on our right, and a narrow strip on 
our left ; the figures were hidden directly they got on either 
of these dark strips, or when they passed into ourselves ; but 
as we walked on they came from every quarter. Some seemed 
to rise out of the grass on either side of us ; others seemed to 
pass through us, and come out on the other side. The figures 
all seemed short, dwarf-like, except one, of whom I write after. 
The women were dressed in by-gone fashion, high bo.nnets, big 

1 Proc. S. P. P.,x., p. 305. 2 Proc. S. P. P., vi., p. 240. 

18 



274 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

cloaks or shawls, and large flounces on their dresses, such as 
I remember my mother wearing when I was a child. We 
three were never mistaken as to the identity of the different 
shapes ; if one saw a man, all saw a man ; if one saw a woman, 
all saw the woman ; and so on. Overhead it was perfectly 
free of them ; they were all walking on the ground, as we our- 
selves were. We saw two men (at different intervals) that had 
sparks all round their faces ; they appeared to grin. As we 
saw the second of these, looking hideous, close to us, one of 
my companions said, ' I can't pass that,' and I answered : 
' Look at the sky, you don't see them then.' " Mrs. E. F. goes 
on to describe a tall man — twice as tall as any of the other 
figures — who walked close beside them, with long, noiseless 
strides, on the road, never swerving, but walking as with a pur- 
pose. This figure kept with them when all the rest had van- 
ished, and finally walked on when they turned in at their own 



Miss C. M. B. corroborates her sister's account. 1 
It is not easy to regard this curious phantasma- 
goria as an illusion. But the fact that it occurred 
in a fog, and is, moreover, unique in our collection, 
certainly points to such an explanation. Possibly, 
as Mrs. Sidgwick suggests, the tall figure was a real 
man walking in goloshes, and the rest of the spec- 
tral company were born of the fog. On the whole, 
the most probable view is that this vision was a 
collective hallucination on a basis of illusory per- 
ception. In any case, it may be pointed out, it is 
difficult to reconcile with any theory of post-mortem 
activity. 

The majority of collective visual phantasms do, 
indeed, represent the human figure, but rarely a 

1 Proc. S. P. R., iii. , p. 77. 



GHOSTS. 275 

recognised figure of the dead. Two instances of 
unrecognised apparitions may be quoted. 

No. II.— Mrs. Willett, of Lindfield, writes (Dec, 1886) : 
"On Saturday, December nth, my eldest child Dorothy, aged 

nearly thirteen, was standing in the hall talking to Miss S , 

the Schoolmistress at Scaynes Hill, when they both saw what 
appeared to them to be a little child in a white pinafore run- 
ning along the gallery, but they heard no sound of footsteps." 

Dorothy went to meet the child, but found no 
one. Both percipients have written confirming 
Mrs. Willett's account. 1 

No. III. — Miss Du Cane writes (July 31, 1891) that on the 
night of 1st November, 1 889, between 9.30 and 10 p.m., she had 
gone up to her bedroom, the door between which and her 
mother's room was open. " There was no light beyond that 
which glimmered through the Venetian blinds in each room. 
As I stood by the mantel-piece I was awestruck by the sudden 
appearance of a figure gliding noiselessly towards me from the 
outer room. The appearance was that of a young man, of 
middle height, dressed in dark clothes and wearing a peaked 
cap. His face was very pale, and his eyes downcast as though 
deep in thought. His mouth was shaded by a dark moustache. 
The face was slightly luminous, which enabled me to distin- 
guish the features distinctly, although we were without a light 
of any kind at the time. The apparition glided on towards my 
sisters who were standing inside the room, quite close to the 
outer door, and who had just caught sight of it, reflected in the 
mirror. When within a few inches from them it vanished as 
suddenly as it appeared. As the figure passed, we distinctly 
felt a cold air which seemed to accompany it. One of my sis- 
ters did not see the apparition, as she was looking the other 
way at the moment, but felt the cold air." 

Miss Du Cane's three sisters append their signa- 
tures to the account. 2 

1 Journal S. P. R., October, 1889. 2 Journal, S. P.R., March, 1892. 



2j6 



STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 



Collective phantasms of this kind, of which we 
have numerous examples in our collection, appear 
to differ from subjective hallucinations of the ordin- 
ary type in no other particular than the fact of their 
occurrence to two or more persons simultaneously. 
There were 95 collective visual hallucinations re- 
ported at first-hand to the Census Committee of 
the S. P. R., which were divided as shown in the 
following table : l 



Realistic human apparitions of living persons . 


27 


of dead persons . 


8 


unrecognised 


3* 


Incompletely developed apparitions 


12 


Apparitions, grotesque, horrible, or monstrous 


3 


of animals 


4 


of definite inanimate objects 


1 


of lights . . 


2 


of indefinite objects .... 


6 



Total, 95 
Collective Apparitions. (J?) Recognised. 

If we turn now to the small minority of collect- 
ively perceived phantasms representing a deceased 
person recognised at the time by one or all the per- 
cipients, we shall find that they present the same 
general characteristics. The two cases which follow 
are examples of the ordinary type. We will begin 
with an auditory case. 

No. IV. — Miss Newbold (May, 1892) was much attached to 
a little child of about four years, Florence N., who died on 
May 23, 1889. One morning in July of the same year Miss 
1 S. P. .tf.,x.,p. 414. 



GHOSTS. 2/7 

Newbold was calling on Mrs. N., and talking of indifferent 
subjects, when she distinctly heard the child's voice call 
" Miss Boo " (her name for Miss Newbold). Miss Newbold 
said nothing, but Mrs. N. at once turned to her and asked if 
she had not heard the child's voice call "Miss Boo." The 
sound appeared to come from another room. , No other hallu- 
cinations. Mrs. N. confirms the account. No other hallucina- 
tio?is. x 

We now pass to visual cases. I received a viva 
voce account of the following incident from the 
two percipients in August, 1893; the account was 
put into writing, at my request, on the same day. 

No. V. — Mrs. J. C. (August, 1893) about seven years pre- 
viously awoke feeling some one near her. She saw a figure 
moving from the side of her bed to the wardrobe. She sup- 
posed it to be a burglar and lay perfectly still, fearing to awake 
her husband, lest he should attack the supposed burglar and 
receive serious injury. The figure moved on opposite Mr. J. 
C's bed. She then saw Mr. J. C. sit up and look at it. The 
figure then apparently passed to the door and vanished. The 
gas was burning during this scene. No other hallucinations. 

Mr. J. C. (August, 1893) states that on the night in question 
he sat up suddenly in bed — he has no recollection of any pre- 
vious dream — and saw, as he thought, his father move noise- 
lessly across the room, and disappear through the door. He 
did not, however, see the face, but recognised the figure from 
its general appearance. No other hallucinations?' 

In this case the fact that Mrs. J. C. did not speak 
or move makes it improbable that the hallucination 
seen by Mr. J. C. could have been started by sug- 
gestion of a normal kind. If the incident cannot 

1 Apparitions and Thought- Transference, pp. 275-6. 

2 Apparitions and Thought-Transference , pp. 281-2. 



278 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

be cited as a strong proof of the agency of the dead, 
it at least indicates telepathy from the living. 

The next case is of a more complicated kind. A 
figure resembling a lady who had died in the house a 
few months previously was seen by four of her nieces 
and by three other persons. Some of the apparitions 
were seen by two or three witnesses simultaneously. 
It does not appear, however, that the recognition 
was very clear; nor that the figure was recognised 
at all until — as Mrs. Sidgwick points out — the per- 
cipients had formed a theory on the subject. The 
fact of the apparition is, however, well attested. 

No.VL— From Miss C.N. (November, 1891) : "When I first 
thought that I saw my aunt, I was twelve years old ; it was in 
1884, about two months after her death. I was playing in the 
drawing-room, when suddenly I noticed a tall figure in black 
leave the room. The others had also seen it ; we were not 
frightened, only very much surprised, because we had not seen 
any one enter, and it was certainly no member of the family. 
When we ran out of the room to see where the person had dis- 
appeared to, there was no sign of her anywhere. Later on 
the same day, I was going upstairs, when I was again surprised 
by seeing the same person walking across the landing from one 
bedroom to another. Just at the same moment my sister and 
friend came up ; they had also seen the figure. 

" One evening at about seven o'clock, when everyone of the 
family were at dinner, I passed my mother's open door ; there 
I saw the same figure standing in the doorway ; her face was 
turned from me toward the room ; I looked hard at her for 
one minute, then ran on. When I reached the top of the 
stairs I looked again, but she had quite vanished. 

" Another evening I went up to my grandmother's room to 
speak to her ; there was a long screen in front of the door, so 
that I could not see into the room when I first entered. I 



GHOSTS. 279 

stopped at the door for a second, for I heard what I thought 
was my grandmother walking about the room. Just as I was 
going to run past the screen, the same figure, dressed in black 
with a white shawl, passed me very quickly and went into the 
dressing-room, which was out of the bedroom. My first im- 
pulse was to follow her, but I heard such a strange noise in the 
dressing-room that I feared to enter. I do not remember be- 
ing really frightened at the time, for I never saw the face 
distinctly." 

Miss A. N. and Miss G., the sister and friend 
who were present on the first two occasions re- 
ferred to, have written confirmatory accounts. 
Miss A. N. also describes two other appearances 
of the figure to her. The four other percipients 
saw the figure in each case when they were alone. 1 
The figure in this case, it will be seen, was recur- 
rent. Another instance of a recurrent apparition 
collectively seen and recognised is described at 
length in the next chapter. 

The next case again is of an unusual type, though 
not without parallel in our collection. 

No. VII. — Mrs. Davis (December, 1888) writes that on the 
night of 31st December, 1882, she was awakened by an un- 
usual light in her room. She sprang up in a tremor, and saw 
gliding by her bed the figure of an elderly person. It passed 
through the closed door into Mr. Davis's room. The shutters 
were closed and curtains drawn, so that the room was quite 
dark. Mrs. Davis did not see the face ; and is now not sure 
whether she at the time recognised in the general appearance 
of the figure a likeness to Mr. Davis's mother (deceased). 
Has had other similar hallucinations. 

Mr. Davis writes (February, 1889) that on the same night 
x Proc. S. P. P.,x., pp. 352-6. 



280 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

he was awakened from a quiet sleep by a light which seemed 
to come from the door leading to his wife's room. A figure — 
in which he recognized his mother — appeared, approached 
the bed, leaned down as if to kiss him, and then suddenly 
vanished. 1 

II. — Solitary Apparitions, (a.) Conveying News of 

Death. 

We may now pass to phantasms appearing to a 
single percipient, but distinguished by their content 
or the time of their appearance from purely sub- 
jective hallucinations. The largest class under this 
head consists of phantasms appearing before the 
fact of the death is known, and thus conveying in- 
formation. Of course, as the interval between 
death and the appearance of the phantasm may 
vary from a single day to many weeks, the cor- 
roboration thus obtained is sensibly weaker than 
that afforded by such phantasms as those discussed 
in the last chapter, appearing within a few hours of 
the crisis. But, nevertheless, the comparative fre- 
quency of apparitions of the kind now to be dis- 
cussed certainly suggests a causal connection of 
some kind with the death. 

To begin with an auditory case. 

No. VIII.— Revd. C. C. Wambey writes (1884) : 

" 39 Canal, Salisbury. 
"On the evening of Sunday, August 20, 1874, I was stroll- 
ing on the downs skirting Marlcombe Hill, composing a 
congratulatory letter, which I proposed to write and post to 
my very dear friend W\, so that he might have it on his birthday, 
the 22nd, when I heard a voice, saying, ' What, write to a dead 
1 Proc. S. P. R., vi., pp. 289-90. 



GHOSTS. 28 1 

man ; write to a dead man ! ' I turned sharply round, fully 
expecting to see some one close behind me. There was no 
one. Treating the matter as an illusion, I went on with my 
composition. A second time I heard the same voice, saying 
more loudly than before, ' What, write to a dead man ; write 
to a dead man ! ' Again I turned round. I was alone, at 
least bodily. I now fully understood the meaning of that 
voice ; it was no illusion. 

" Notwithstanding this, I sent the proposed letter, and in reply 
received from Mrs. W. the sad, but to me not unexpected, in- 
telligence, that her husband was dead. 

; ' What, write to a dead man ; write to a dead man ! ' ' 

In answer to inquiries, Mr. Wambey says : " I have an im- 
pression — but only an impression — that I have heard other 
voices, no visible person being near." ' 

A similar experience is described by Mr. Edward 
A. Goodall, the artist. 2 Three dreams belonging 
to this class are given in the S. P. R. Journal for 
May, 1893. In each of these cases the percipient 
dreamed that his friend was dead, and wrote before 
the news reached him, describing his dream, the 
letter being opened by the surviving friends. In 
the next case the information was conveyed in a 
dream of a vague but distressing kind. 

No. IX. — Miss Kitching then in Saratoga, N. Y., on the 
morning of the 23rd August, 1888, had in a dream a painful 
impression of the death of her brother in Algeria. But the 
death had taken place on the 20th, and the cablegram announc- 
ing it had been designedly held over in New York ; from which 
town it was actually despatched to Saratoga, a few hours after 
the dream. 3 

1 Proc. S. P. P., iii., p. 91. 

2 See Proc. S. P. P.,\., p. 453. 

3 Journal, S. P. P., June, 1893. 



282 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

In the cases which follow, the phantasm was of a 
visual character, presenting itself either as a waking 
hallucination or a dream. In the first case the 
shadowy figure of the dead man is accompanied by 
a symbolic coffin. 

No. X.— Mrs. G. T. Haly writes (1884) : 

"122 CONINGHAM ROAD, SHEPHERD'S BUSH, W. 

" On waking in broad daylight, I saw, like a shadowed 
reflection, a very long coffin stretching quite across the ceiling 
of my room, and as I lay gazing at it, and wondering at its 
]ength and whose death it could foreshadow, my eyes fell on 
a shadowy figure of an absent nephew, with his back towards 
me, searching, as it were, in my bookshelf. That morning's 
post brought the news of his death in Australia. He was six 
foot two or three inches in height, and a book had been my last 
present to him on his leaving England, taken from that very 
bookcase." 

Mr. Gurney saw Mrs. Haly in November, 1884, 
and learnt that this, and an appearance of lights, 
are the only hallucinations of sight Mrs. Haly has 
had, and that she clearly recognised her nephew's 
figure. The event occurred in the winter of 1872- 
3, some six weeks after the nephew's death. 1 It 
will be noted that, though the death had occurred 
several weeks previously, the phantasm was not seen 
until news of the event had reached England in the 
ordinary course of post. The same feature recurs 
in several other cases. 

In the two cases which follow, the time selected 
for the apparition is still more significant. 

No. XI. — Miss ( August, 1885 ) went on 2nd Novem- 
ber, 1876, to stay at her brother's house. Shortly after mid- 
1 Proc. S. P. R., iii., p. 91. 



GHOSTS. 283 

night she had occasion to go down-stairs to fetch something 
that had been forgotten. " On returning and entering the cor- 
ridor in which my room was, I saw, standing beyond my door- 
way, a figure. It looked misty, as if, had there been a light 
behind it, I should have seen through the mist. This misty 
figure was the likeness of a friend of ours whom I knew to 
have been on a voyage to Australia. I stood and looked at 
* It.' I put my hand over my eyes and looked again. Still it 
was there. Then it seemed to pass away, how I cannot say. 
I went on and into my room. I said to myself, my brain was 
tired out ; and I hurried to bed so as to get rest. 

" Next day I told my sister-in-law what I had seen. We 
raughed about my ghost." No other hallucinations. 

It was subsequently ascertained that the friend in 
question, F. G. Le Maistre, second officer of the 
barque Gauntlet, had fallen overboard on the 27th 
September, 1876, and that his body had been washed 
ashore on October the 22 nd. 1 

No. XII. — Mr. George King (November, 1885) on the night 
of December 2, 1874, after being present at a Conversazione at 
King's College, London, dreamt that at a brilliant assembly 
his brother advanced towards him. He was in evening dress, 
like all the rest, and was the very image of buoyant health. 
" I was much surprised to see him, and, going forward to 
meet him, I said : ' Hallo ! D., how are you here ? ' He shook 
me warmly by the hand, and replied : ' Did you not know I 
have been wrecked again ? ' At these words a deadly faintness 
came over me. I seemed to swim away and sink to the ground. 
After momentary unconsciousness I awoke, and found myself 
in my bed. I was in a cold perspiration, and had paroxysms 
of trembling, which would not be controlled. I argued with 
myself on the absurdity of getting into a panic over a dream, 
but all to no purpose, and for long I could not sleep." No 
hallucinations and no other dreams of any kind. 
1 Proc. S. P. P., v., p. 412. 



284 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

The newspapers on the following morning con- 
tained an account of the foundering of La Plata, 
the ship in which Mr. King's brother had sailed, 
on November 29th. 1 

Now in each of these five cases it would appear 
that a certain piece of information — the death of a 
friend — was conveyed to the percipients by voice, 
dream, or visible phantasm before the news had 
reached them through the normal channels of sense ; 
and in each of the last three cases, it is to be noted, 
the information purported to proceed from the dead 
man himself. Are we justified in assuming that the 
interpretation directly suggested by these appear- 
ances — communication with the dead — is the true 
one ? To such a question there can, of course, be 
no certain answer. But a comparison of the times 
at which in each case the news reached the per- 
cipient certainly points to another interpretation of 
the facts. 

Thus in Mrs. Haly's case (No. 10) it may be 
suggested that there is probably a connection be- 
tween the appearance of the phantasm and the 
receipt of the annunciatory letter. It is at all 
events possible that the news had been received 
by other relatives of the deceased in England on 
the previous evening (by the same mail which 
brought Mrs. Haly's letter), and that her vision 
was due to some communication from their minds. 
If the vision were really due to the deceased, it 
must be regarded as singularly unfortunate, from 

1 Proc. S. P. R., v., p. 455. 



GHOSTS. 285 

the evidential standpoint, that he chose such a time 
for delivering his message ; a time, moreover, pe- 
culiarly inappropriate for his own purposes, since it 
rendered that message practically superfluous. The 
same remarks apply to Case No. 9. In the next 
case, Mr. Le Maistre was drowned on September 
27th ; his body was recovered on October 22nd ; 
and his apparition was seen by a friend on November 
3rd. It can hardly be without significance that the 
message came, not in the course of the three or four 
weeks during which the dead man was supposed by 
his friends on shore to be alive and well, but after 
the fact of the death was known, and when the 
message itself could no longer serve any useful 
purpose. So again, in Case No. 12, Mr. King 
dreamt of his brother's death only on the fourth 
day after the wreck of the vessel, and some hours 
after the news had reached England. 

Thus, in all these four cases — and I can find no 
clear instance to the contrary in our collection — in 
which the mere communication in due season of 
the fact of the death would of itself have afforded 
some evidence of the continued action of the dead, 
the communication was delayed until the intelli- 
gence had already reached others in the vicinity of 
the percipient by normal means, i. e., until, the pos- 
sibility of thought-transference from the living had 
been established. That would seem to be some- 
thing more than a coincidence. 

It should, perhaps, be pointed out that, if in the 
absence of any clear indications from other sources 



286 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

of the possibility of communication with the dead, 
we accept provisionally the explanation of these 
narratives here suggested, the fact of the com- 
munication having been received before the news 
reached the percipient by normal means remains to 
be accounted for. These narratives, if not proofs 
of the agency of the dead, are in the alternative 
valuable evidence for supersensuous communication 
from the living. 

Solitary Apparitions, (b) Conveying Other 
Information. 

Sometimes the phantasm is reported as giving 
information not merely of the fact of the death 
itself, but of the accompanying circumstances. 
Two or three examples of this kind may be 
quoted. 

The first case is a dream of a ''clairvoyant" 
character. The percipient is a member of the So- 
ciety of Friends. 

No. XIII. — Mrs. Green of Newry, writes (Jan. 21, 1885): " I 
saw two respectably dressed females driving alone in a vehicle 
like a mineral-water cart. Their horse stopped at a water to 
drink ; but as there was no footing, he lost his balance, and 
in trying to recover it he plunged right in. With the shock, 
the women stood up and shouted for help, and their hats rose 
off their heads, and as all were going down I turned away cry- 
ing, and saying : ' Was there no one at all to help them ? ' 
upon which I awoke, and my husband asked me what was the 
matter. I related the above dream to him, and he asked me 
if I knew them. I said I did not, and thought I had never 
seen either of them. The impression of the dream and the 



GHOSTS. 287 

trouble it brought was over me all day. I remarked to my 
son it was the anniversary of his birthday and my own also — 
the 10th of First Month, and this is why I remember the 
date." No other dreams of the kind. 

Later it appeared that a niece of Mrs. Green, 
whom she had never seen, together with another 
young woman, had actually been drowned in Aus- 
tralia in the manner which she had seen in her 
dream. They had been driving in a spring cart, 
and had inadvertently driven into a deep hole in a 
dam ; no one saw the accident, and the bodies 
were not recovered until some hours later. The 
accident apparently took place some twenty-four 
hours before the dream. 

Mr. Green (Feb., 1885) was told of the dream 
at the time, and remembers that his wife was 
greatly distressed about it. 

No. XIV. — Colonel H, writes (Feb., 1886) that two intimate 
friends, J. P. and T. S., were engaged in the Transvaal war. 
On the morning of the 29th (?) January, 1881, he awoke with 
a start. " The grey dawn was stealing in through the win- 
dows, and the light fell sharply and distinctly on the military 
chest of drawers which stood at the further end of the room, 
and which I had carried about with me everywhere during 
my service. Standing by my bed, between me and the chest 
of drawers, I saw a figure, which, in spite of the unwonted 
dress — unwonted, at least, to me — and of a full black beard, I 
at once recognised as that of my old brother-officer, J. P. He 
had on the usual khaki coat, worn by officers on active ser- 
vice in eastern climates. A brown leather strap, which might 
have been the strap of his field service glass, crossed his breast. 
A brown leather girdle, with sword attached on the left side, 
and revolver case on the right, passed round his waist. On 



288 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

his head he wore the ordinary white pith helmet of service. 
I noted all these particulars in the moment that I started from 
sleep, and sat up in bed looking at him. His face was pale, 
but his bright black eyes shone as keenly as when, a year and 
a half before, they had looked upon me as he stood, with one 
foot on the hansom, bidding me adieu. 

" Fully impressed for the brief moment that we were sta- 
tioned together at C in Ireland, or somewhere, and think- 
ing I was in my barrack-room, I said : ' Hallo ! P., am I late 
for parade ? ' P. looked at me steadily, and replied : ' I 'm 
shot.' 

" ' Shot ! ' I exclaimed. ' Good God ! how and where ? ' 
' Through the lungs,' replied P., and as he spoke his right 
hand moved slowly up the breast, until the fingers rested 
over the right lung. 

" ' What were you doing ? ' I asked. 
' The General sent me forward,' he answered, and the right 
hand left the breast to move slowly to the front, pointing over 
my head to the window, and at the same moment the figure 
melted away. I rubbed my eyes, to make sure I was not 
dreaming, and sprang out of bed. It was then 4.10 a.m. by 
the clock on my mantelpiece." No other hallucinations. 

Colonel H. subsequently learnt that J. P. was 
wearing that particular uniform at the time of his 
death ; that he had grown a beard, a fact which 
Colonel H. did not know ; and that he was wounded 
through the right lung. The battle of Lang's Neck 
began on the 28th January, 1881, at about 9.30 
a.m. Colonel H., in his original account, stated 
that his vision coincided with the time of the death, 
but that was clearly impossible. He states his con- 
viction, however, that the vision occurred before 
the news of the death reached him. 1 

l Proc. S. P. R.,\., p. 412. 



GHOSTS. 289 

There are other cases of the kind in our collec- 
tion. Thus Mr. F. G., of Boston, relates that, 
eleven years after his sisters death, he saw a life- 
like apparition of her with a bright red scratch on 
the right side of her face. He learnt subsequently 
that his mother had accidentally caused a scratch 
of the kind on his sister's face, as she lay in her 
coffin, but had never mentioned the incident to 
anyone. Mr. F. G's father and brother confirm 
this account. 1 

Solitary Apparitions. ( c. ) Identified Subsequently. 

Lastly, there is a small class of cases where an 
apparition is seen and subsequently recognised as 
resembling a dead person who in his lifetime was 
in some way associated with the locality where the 
vision was seen. 

One of the best evidenced cases of this kind is 
the following : 

No. XV. — Mr. John E. Husbands, — of Grimsby, writes 
(Sept. 15th, 1886) : 

" I was sleeping in a hotel in Madeira in January, 1885. 
It was a bright moonlight night. The windows were open 
and the blinds up. I felt some one in my room. On opening 
my eyes, I saw a young fellow about twenty-five, dressed in 
flannels, standing at the side of my bed and pointing with the 
first finger of his right hand to the place where I was lying. 
I lay for some seconds to convince myself of some one being 
really there. I then sat up and looked at him. I saw his 
features so plainly that I recognised them in a photograph 
which was shown me some days after. I asked him what he 
1 Proc. S. P. P., vi., p. 17. See also iii., pp. 95 et seq. 



290 



STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 



wanted ; he did not speak, but his eyes and hands seemed to 
tell me I was in his place. As he did not answer, I struck out 
at him with my fist as I sat up, but did not reach him, and as I 
was going to spring out of bed he slowly vanished through the 
door, which was shut, keeping his eyes upon me all the time. 

" Upon inquiry I found that the young fellow who appeared 
to me died in that room I was occupying." 

Miss K. Falkner, who was staying at the hotel at the time, 
writes (Oct., 1886) that Mr. Husbands told her the story on the 
following morning, and that she identified the figure from his 
description. Later she showed the photograph, which Mr. 
Husbands recognised, adding that the figure which he had 
seen was dressed differently. 

Miss Falkner's sister-in-law adds that she also heard the 
story from Mr. Husbands, and that the date would be either 
the 3rd or 4th February, 1885. 1 

There are several other cases reported to us, in 
which a phantasm was recognised from a photo- 
graph or picture. 2 One such instance may be sum- 
marised here. 

No. XVI. — Mrs. (known to me) writes (Nov., 1882) 

that in 1872, sleeping one night at a friend's house, she awoke 
in a cold sweat, and saw in the dim light a man standing close 
to her bedside. The figure instantly disappeared, but re- 
appeared three times the same night. It was apparently a tall, 
well-built, rather good-looking man, in a frock coat and with a 
long reddish beard. Next morning she saw in the dining-room 
a picture in which, after a little prompting, she recognised the 
face of her vision. It was the portrait of the late owner of the 
house, who had died of delirium tremens in the room in which 
Mrs. had seen the figure. 

1 Proc. S. P. R., v., pp. 416-17. 

2 Another case will be found in the next chapter There is a remark- 
able case quoted in Proc. S. P. R., vi., p. 57. One other case will be 
found in Proc. S. P. R., vol. i., p. 106. 



GHOSTS. 29I 

Mrs. adds that her cousin apparently had a similar 

experience in the same house ; but the cousin has declined to 
answer any questions on the matter. 1 

More generally, the recognition is effected merely 
from the description given by the percipient of his 
experience. A good case of this kind is the fol- 
lowing : 

No. XVII.— Mr. D. M. Tyre of Glasgow (October, 1885), 
with his sisters, took a house in the summer of 1874 in Dum- 
bartonshire. " One afternoon, on returning after a short ab- 
sence about 6 p. m., we found L. down the hill to meet us in a 
rather excited state, saying that an old woman had taken up her 
quarters in the kitchen, and was lying in the bed. We asked 
if she knew who she was. She said no, that the old wife 
was lying on the bed with her clothes on, and that possibly 
she was a tinker body (a gipsy), therefore she was afraid to go 
in without us. We went up to the house with L. ; my younger 
sister L., going in first, said, on going into the kitchen : 
* There she is,' pointing to the bed, and turned to us, ex- 
pecting that we would wake her up and ask what she was 
there for. I looked in the bed, and so did my elder sister, 
but the clothes were flat and unruffled, and when we said that 
there was nothing there she was quite surprised, and, pointing 
with her finger, said : * Look, why there's the old wife with 
her clothes on and lying with her head towards the window ' ; 
but we could not see anything. 

" Then for the first time it seemed to dawn upon her that she 
was seeing something that was not natural to us all, and she 
became very much afraid, and we took her to the other room 
and tried to soothe her, for she was trembling all over." 

Two or three days later, " one afternoon, as we were sitting 
in the kitchen round the fire, it being a cold, wet day outside, 
L. startled us by exclaiming : ' There is the old woman again, 
and lying the same way.' L. did not seem to be so much 

1 Proc. S. P. P., vol. iii., p. 101. 



292 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

afraid this time, so we asked her to describe the figure ; and 
with her eyes fixed on the bed and with motion of the finger, 
she went on to tell us how that the old wife was not lying 
under the blankets, but on top, with her clothes and boots on, 
and her legs drawn up as though she were cold ; her face was 
turned to the wall, and she had on what is known in the High- 
lands as a 'sow-backed mutch,' that is, a white cap which 
only old women wear ; it has a frill round the front, and sticks 
out at the back. She also wore a drab-coloured petticoat, and 
a checked shawl round her shoulders drawn tight. Such was 
the description given ; she could not see her face, but her 
right hand was hugging her left arm, and she saw that the hand 
was yellow and thin, and wrinkled like the hands of old people 
who have done a lot of hard work in their day." 

This vision was seen repeatedly by L., but by no other 
member of the household. Later they learned from a neigh- 
bour, Mrs. McP., that the description exactly fitted the wife of 
the previous tenant. This man had cruelly ill-used his wife, 
and one day beat her very severely and had to ask Mrs. McP. 
for help. " When Mrs. McP. went up to the house she found 
Kate, as my sister described, with her clothes on, and lying 
with her face to the wall, for the purpose, as Mrs. McP. said, 
of concealing her face, which was very badly coloured by the 
ill-treatment of her husband. The finish up was her death, 
she having never recovered." 1 

The percipient L. is now dead ; and Mrs. McP. 
refuses to give her corroboration. 

Other examples of the kind could be cited. 2 But 
most of the other cases which have come before us 
are remote, the accounts having been written down 
many years after the event, or rest upon the evi- 
dence of a single memory. 

We have now passed in review the chief types 

1 Proc. S. P. P., v., pp. 418-19. 

2 See Proc, vols. v. and vi., articles on Phantasms of the Dead, 



GHOSTS. 293 

of these isolated apparitions. There remains to 
consider how far the evidence, of which samples 
have been given above, makes for the hypothesis 
that these apparitions are due to the influence, or 
are in some way representative, of deceased men 
and women. That this hypothesis is in many cases 
held by our informants was pointed out at the be- 
ginning of the chapter, and it is indeed obvious 
from the narratives themselves. But it will hardly 
be contended that the direct evidence for it is very 
cogent. 

Leaving on one side the isolated apparitions 
which have no mark to distinguish them from purely 
subjective hallucinations, we find that the collective 
apparitions form numerically the strongest class. 
But collective apparitions include, as has been 
shown, cases of inanimate and even grotesque ob- 
jects. And though the great majority represent the 
human figure, the proportion where the figure is 
recognised as that of a dead person is compara- 
tively small. And in some even of these cases the 
recognition is doubtful on the part of one or both 
percipients. 

It would be rash then to found on such evidence 
any strong argument for the agency of the spirits 
of the dead. The facts, indeed, suggest that the 
occurrence of such apparitions may be due to the 
telepathic transference of a casual hallucination. 

Passing on to the non-collective cases, we find a 
considerable number of instances in which the 
phantasm is perceived before the death is known. 



294 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

The evidence in some of these cases is good, and 
we are, perhaps, justified in assuming that the 
mythopceic tendency has not seriously affected the 
narratives. But, as has been pointed out, the co- 
incidence in such cases is not of a very striking 
kind ; since the interval between the death and the 
receipt of the information by the percipient ex- 
tended in several cases over some weeks. The 
opportunity for chance coincidence is therefore so 
much the greater. Moreover, as has already been 
said, the possibility of thought-transference from 
living persons in the neighbourhood of the per- 
cipient, who were aware of the death, is indicated 
in every case which has come before us. Here 
also the evidence must be regarded as at best am- 
biguous. 

If we turn now to the last two categories — the 
cases in which the apparition presents some peculi- 
arity of dress or appearance previously unknown to 
the percipient ; or is recognised only by subsequent 
description or from a picture, we encounter difficul- 
ties of another kind. The well-evidenced cases 
under either of these heads are as yet few. The 
narratives which have reached us are for the most 
part uncorroborated, or written down long after the 
event. Some are defective in both respects. Now 
the dramatic features present in narratives of this 
class are precisely those which are most likely to 
have been imported into the experience. If a man 
has a vivid dream or even a waking vision of this 
kind, which is not at once committed to writing, 



GHOSTS. 295 

there is a tendency for the tale to grow with each 
telling of it. The picture of the experience pre- 
served in the memory is probably so dim and in- 
distinct that it is not difficult without any conscious 
dishonesty for the narrator to read back into it 
details subsequently learnt, or even to embellish it 
with a quite free hand. We have evidence that 
this transforming process has taken place in several 
cases, of which the most apt instance for our pres- 
ent purpose is the case of Mr. X. Z., referred to in 
the next chapter. Mr. X. Z., a gentleman of some 
intellectual distinction, gave us an account of an 
apparition which he had seen in a haunted house 
on the anniversary of a double tragedy, and had 
subsequently recognised in a picture. The account 
was not written down until thirty years after the 
occurrence ; and from bur subsequent inquiries it is 
doubtful whether the picture-incident ever took 
place at all ; it would appear, indeed, that Mr. X. Z., 
probably without conscious bad faith, had worked 
up a comparatively unsensational experience into 
a first-class ghost story. Indirect evidence point- 
ing in the same direction is to be found in the 
frequency with which incidents of this kind — the 
presence of some article of dress, subsequently 
recognised, or the identification of a figure by de- 
scription or from a picture — occur in second-hand 
narratives. In such cases the narrator, being free 
from a sense of personal responsibility, is of course 
much more likely to shape the story to fit his pre- 
conceived ideas of how a phantom should act and 



296 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

what it should wear. The fateful anniversary, the 
appropriate garb, the solemn and pregnant utter- 
ance, the very image of the death-wound, — certis- 
sima mortis imago, — all these are characteristic of 
the second-hand ghost. We may thus learn from 
second-hand and traditional stories what are the 
features that impress the popular imagination, and 
what are likely therefore to be imported, with the 
lapse of time, into first-hand narratives. Tried by 
this test there is reason to question the details — 
and it is precisely upon the details that the signi- 
ficance of the narrative, as evidence for the agency 
of the dead, depends — in many of the more striking 
stories in this category. 

But even were the evidence of this kind so copi- 
ous and of such quality that we could no longer 
plausibly attribute the phenomena described to 
chance coincidence or unconscious misrepresenta- 
tion, we should still scarcely be justified in regard- 
ing them as proofs of the action of the dead. It 
is at least conceivable that, following the analogy 
of one or two cases already quoted, 1 these phantasms 
may be simply images transferred from the mind 
of the living. Thus, the figure seen by Mr. Hus- 
bands (No. 15) may have been a reflection of the 
thoughts or dreams of other persons in the hotel, 
who had been familiar with the dead man a few 
months before ; and the vision seen by Mrs. Green 
(No. 13), it may be suggested, possibly had its 

1 See for instance the case of Frances Reddell quoted in the preceding 

chapter. 



GHOSTS. 297 

origin in the picture present to the mind of the 
bereaved father. 

In any case, if we dismiss the hypothesis of post- 
mortem activity as at present not proved, it is clear 
that in many of these narratives there is evidence 
of the supernormal acquisition of information. Such 
cases as those of Mrs. Green or Mr. King (No. 12) 
may fairly be held to strengthen the evidence for 
the possibility of communication between mind and 
mind apart from the normal sensory channels. 



CHAPTER X. 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 



BUT the word ghost, no doubt, most commonly 
suggests, not the isolated apparitions dealt 
with in the last chapter, but tales of phantoms and 
uncanny disturbances in the old manor house or 
the ruined castle. The Society has accumulated an 
enormous mass of evidence for phenomena of this 
class — a mass so great that it is practicable to offer 
only very brief samples of it in the present chapter. 
The samples given will consist exclusively of cases 
where we have the evidence of at least two witnesses 
at first-hand, and where the accounts, or one of 
them, have been written down within ten years of 
the events which they record. In order still further 
to reduce the bulk of evidence, and to exclude 
phenomena more readily explicable by normal 
causes, it is proposed to deal mainly with things 
seen, and to discuss disturbances of other kinds 
only so far as they accompany or are connected 
with visual apparitions. We have, indeed, received 
many accounts, from competent witnesses, of the 
occurrence, sometimes for a long period, of inex- 

298 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 299 

plicable noises — footsteps, loud crashes, shrieks, 
the banging- of doors, and so on. But we should 
hardly be justified in assuming that these mys- 
terious sounds were not of material origin, merely be- 
cause a material cause eluded observation — even 
careful and prolonged observation — at the time. 
A ghost whose last word, like Nora in the Doll's 
House, is to slam the door, leaves little opening 
for effective investigation. 

By this double process of selection the mass 
of several hundred narratives is reduced to some 
thirty or forty cases. In considering these cases, 
or such of them as it is practicable to quote here, 
it will be worth while to pursue the line of inquiry 
indicated at the end of the last chapter, and to 
compare the popular idea of a ghost, as exhibited 
in traditional accounts or narratives written down 
long after the event, with the facts set forth in 
trustworthy recent evidence. Some of the chief 
features in the popular conception of a ghost, then, 
may be briefly summarised under six heads : 

(1) The ghost, or figure, seen at different times by 
various occupants of the house is the same figure. 

(2) The figure is very generally identified with some 
deceased person. (3) He gives information on mat- 
ters outside the percipient's knowledge, warns 
against danger, or otherwise manifests a purpose. 
(4) His presence in the haunted locality is generally 
associated with human remains, or (5) with a tragedy 
of some kind. (6) He appears by preference on 
some special anniversary. 



300 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC A I RESEARCH. 

(i) Now the first of these characteristics we do 
meet with in some fairly recent cases. We have 
in our collection several narratives in which we 
have received reports, professedly independent, 
from two or more credible witnesses, of similar 
apparitions seen by them in the same locality. Of 
the good faith of our informants there can be no 
reasonable doubt ; and there are occasionally col- 
lateral circumstances, such as the anxiety to avoid 
alarm to children, servants, or nervous relatives, 
which furnish a sufficient reason for the original 
percipient keeping silence about his uncanny ex- 
perience, and supply a kind of independent cor- 
roboration of his statement that he has done so — a 
statement which, if it rested on the mere memory 
of what he said or did not say some years previously, 
we might have hesitated to accept. Indeed it is 
precisely the existence of a certain amount of 
evidence of this type which justified our including 
the subject of " haunted " houses in our investiga- 
tions. The mere occurrence of dissimilar and un- 
related phantasms in a locality whose reputation as 
haunted had become notorious throughout the 
countryside, would not have appeared to us to de- 
mand inquiry on psychical grounds. The influence 
of suggestion and expectation might in such a case 
have been held sufficient to explain the portent. 
But the allegations, resting on testimony which we 
were unable summarily to reject, that similar phan- 
toms had been seen in cases where the several per- 
cipients were unaware of any previous visitation of 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 3OI 

the kind, seemed to us to call for some inquiry on 
our part. 

In the three cases which follow there is appar- 
ently good evidence, not merely that the figures 
seen by different witnesses were very similar, but 
that the first witness, in each case, kept her ex- 
perience to herself, and did not communicate what 
she had seen to the other inmates of the house. 
Two of the accounts in the third case, however, 
were not written down until ten years after the 
events recorded. 1 

I. — Miss Kathleen Leigh Hunt (June, 1884) spent the winter 
of 1 881-2 with a cousin (Miss Laurence) at a house in Hyde 
Park Place, London. One day, about 10 a.m., when going 
up-stairs, she saw in front of her the figure of a servant in a 
light cotton dress (a white ground with a spriggy pattern all 
over it) and a servant's cap. The figure suddenly vanished on 
reaching the first floor. Miss Hunt searched the room with- 

1 The limits of space make it impracticable to give in full the narratives 
quoted in this chapter, which are in some cases very voluminous. I have 
therefore, in the abbreviated accounts which follow, given only the main in- 
cidents, employing in each case, especially in the descriptions of the figures 
seen, the narrator's own words as far as possible, and omitting or passing 
over briefly details which seemed to be irrelevant or capable of explanation 
by ordinary causes. A summary of this kind, however, can clearly not pos- 
sess the same value for evidential purposes as the full account written by the 
eye-witnesses ; and for those who desire to make a closer study of the evi- 
dence, references are given to the original narratives, which are printed at 
length, sometimes in the Proceedings, sometimes in the Journal, of the 
Society. 

The name or initials printed in italic type at the commencement of each 
story or paragraph indicate the person from whose first-hand narrative the 
summary here printed is taken ; the date in brackets is the date on which 
the account was written. When the year only is mentioned, it is generally to 
be understood that the account is taken from more than one letter bearing 
that date. When any incident is related at second-hand, the account is 
prefaced by words to that effect. 



302 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

out result. She did not mention her experience, fearing to 
make her cousin nervous. 

Two or three weeks later, in the morning, Miss Hunt heard 
a knock at the front door. She opened the dining-room door, 
wishing to speak to the servant as she passed to open the front 
door. Miss Hunt saw a figure, which she took to be that of 
the housemaid, pass within two yards of her towards the front 
door. From her position she could see only the side view, 
including part of the cheek. No door opened ; no figure re- 
turned ; and the housemaid, when questioned, denied having 
left the kitchen. Miss Hunt frequently heard noises as of 
persons walking about and moving articles in a room adjoin- 
ing her bedroom. No other hallucinations. 

Miss Laurence (June, 1884) lived in the same house from 
1877 until the autumn of 1882. One morning, about 10.30, 
she was on her way to the third floor, the staircase of which 
was well lighted by a skylight. When she reached the second- 
floor landing, she saw a cotton skirt, of a light lilac shade and 
indefinite pattern, disappearing round the bend of the stairs 
leading to the top floor. Supposing it to be the housemaid, 
she called to her ; and the housemaid appeared from a door 
close to her on the second floor. The only other servant 
was the cook, who was downstairs. Miss Laurence told the 
housemaid of her experience, and the housemaid replied, 
" Oh, that 's nothing, Miss ; I often see a skirt go round that 
corner." No other hallucinations. 

Mr. Paul Bird (July, 1884), coming home one evening 
about 7.30, was wiping his feet on the mat, when he saw one 
of the servants come towards him, and pass into the dining- 
room. The hall lamp was lighted. He followed into the 
dining-room to speak to her, and found no one there. There 
was no other door to the room. He thinks this may have 
been an optical illusion, and that the servant really came into 
the hall, but returned into the kitchen. He had not previously 
heard of the other figures seen in the house. 

There is no evidence of previous hauntings. 1 

1 Proc. S.P.R., iii., p. 106. 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 303 

In the next case we have the testimony of both 
narrators that the original percipient did not at the 
time mention her experience. In addition to this, 
however, we have the statement that the figure of 
a man was twice seen by a little boy, to whom it 
was, of course, very improbable that the previous 
apparitions would have been mentioned. 

II.— Mrs. JV. (Feb., 1885) went in June, 1881, with her 
husband, Surgeon-Major W. } to live in a detached villa of 
modern date. About three weeks later, at 11 a.m., when play- 
ing the piano in the drawing-room, Mrs. W. saw a figure peep- 
ing round the folding-doors to her left. She jumped up, and 
it instantly vanished. The figure — the upper part only seen — 
seemed to be that of a tall man : the face, though moment- 
arily, was distinctly seen ; it was pale, with dark hair and mous- 
tache and a sorrowful expression. She did not mention the 
experience to any one. 

In August, Mrs. W., going into the drawing-room about 8.30 
p.m., saw the upper part of the same figure in the bay-window 
in front of the shutters, which were closed. The room was 
lighted only through the open door. Later in the same month, 
Mrs. W. was playing cricket in the garden with her little boy. 
She could see into the hall of the house through the open 
door. Round the kitchen door, which opened into the hall, she 
saw the face and upper half of the same figure. House searched 
without result. The same year Mrs. W. and her step-daughter 
both heard a deep, sorrowful voice say " I can't find it." (Miss 
W. confirms this statement.) In the same year, coming down- 
stairs after dark, Mrs. W. felt a slap on the back. No other 
hallucinations. 

Miss W. (Feb., 1885) in July, 1881, when playing the 
piano in the drawing-room about 11.30 a.m., saw the head 
and shoulders of a man peeping round the folding-doors. She 
jumped up and the figure disappeared. The face was pale and 
melancholy and the hair very dark. Miss W. had not previ- 



304 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

ously heard of Mrs. W's experience. After this, they com- 
pared notes, and found their descriptions agreed. Both had 
even noticed that the hair was parted in the middle, and that 
a good deal of shirt front showed. (Mrs. W. confirms this.) 
A few weeks later Miss W., when playing bezique one evening 
about ii p.m. with Mrs. W., saw the upper half of the same 
figure peeping round the half-open door. A few weeks later, 
about 11.30 a.m., when playing shuttlecock with her brother 
in his bedroom, she saw over her shoulder through the open 
door the same figure on the landing. Miss W. adds that her 
brother cried out, " There 's a man on the landing." In Sep- 
tember, 1882, about 7.30 p.m. Miss W. saw through the dining- 
room window the figure of a tall man slipping into the porch. 
Miss W. adds that she had heard a vague statement of the 
house being haunted. No other hallucinations . 

Surgeon-Major W. states that he received accounts of all 
these experiences, except the first, at the time ; and confirms 
generally the statements made by his wife and daughter. 1 

The next narrative comes very near the limit 
which we set ourselves at the beginning of this 
chapter, the record of the experiences in two cases 
not having been made until nearly ten years after 
the events. We have, however, the first-hand evi- 
dence of three witnesses ; and, as in the last case, 
it is alleged that a figure was also seen by a young 
child. 

III. — Miss H. C. S. B. (May, 1883) one July morning in 
1873 awoke about 3 a.m., and by the light of the dawn shining 
through the uncurtained window saw the figure of a woman, 
stooping down and apparently looking at her. Her head and 
shoulders were wrapped in a common grey woollen shawl. 
Her arms were folded and were also wrapped in the shawl. 
After an interval which may have been only seconds, the fig- 

1 Proc. S. P. R., iii., p. 102. 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 305 

ure went backwards towards the window and grew by degrees 
transparent, so that through the shawl and the grey dress Miss 
B. could see the white muslin of the toilette table, until finally 
the figure vanished altogether. Miss B. did not mention what 
she had seen to any member of the household, for fear of 
alarming the servants or of being ridiculed by her brother. 

Mr. H. B. B. (August, 1883), solicitor, brother of the last 
witness, about a fortnight later was awakened about 6 a.m. by a 
presentiment of approaching evil. He opened his eyes and saw 
distinctly the form of a darkly clad elderly woman bending 
over him with folded arms, and glaring with eyes of the most 
intense malignity. She silently receded backwards and seemed 
to vanish through the bedroom door. 

Miss H. C. S. B. states that her brother told her at break- 
fast what he had seen, and that she recognised the figure as 
being like that seen by her. 

Miss M. B. (July 1 1883) some years later was awakened, 
on the night of the 7th July, by some one speaking close to 
her. She then saw plainly, by the light coming through the 
uncurtained window, the figure of a woman, which silently 
moved away towards the closed door and disappeared. This 
was shortly before 2 a.m. Miss M. B. had heard of the figure 
previously seen. 

Miss H. C. S. B. adds that the figure of a woman was also 
seen one evening in July by a little boy of four or five ; and 
that sounds of heavy blows, of footsteps, knocking on doors, 
and of heavy objects being moved were frequently heard in 
the house by herself and others. She heard a report that the 
house had, previously to their tenancy, the reputation of being 
haunted, and that a woman had been murdered there. 1 

In the last case, it will be observed, there is an 
attempt at connecting the figure seen with a 
tragedy alleged to have occurred in the house. But 
the evidence for the tragedy rests on the narrator's 
memory of a conversation held some years before ; 

1 Proc. S. P. P., vol. ii., p. 141. 



306 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC A I RESEARCH. 

and apparently no attempt was made at the time 
to verify the statement. To the evidence in 
general on this point we shall revert later. 

I am bound to say, however, that these three 
cases cannot be regarded as typical. Whilst in 
second-hand and traditional narratives there is rarely 
any hint that the figure alleged to be seen by 
different persons is not indubitably the same figure, 
the identity or similarity of the figure is found 
from recent well attested narratives to be less 
commonly established than, antecedently to such a 
full inquiry and comparison as our large collection 
of evidence enables us to undertake, we had been 
led to suppose. Beyond the cases quoted in this 
chapter I doubt if there are more than half a 
dozen other narratives, resting on equally good 
testimony, in which the identity of the figure seen 
by different persons can plausibly be maintained. 
In most first-hand accounts the apparition assumes 
a different shape at different times ; or, to speak 
more accurately, different figures are frequently seen 
in the same house. Thus, to quote various cases 
in our collection, the several witnesses see at one 
time in the haunted house the tall slender figure 
of a woman dressed in black, at another time a 
short lady in a green dress ; or we hear of a 
clergyman dressed " in his clericals," and a woman ; 
of a woman in white and a woman in green ; a little 
girl " in white, with long streaming fair hair," "a 
man in a scarlet hunting-coat and top-boots," and a 
tall lady with a child in her arms ; again we have 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 307 

"a trim little page in antique costume," a man with 
blood-stained face, and a woman in short-waisted 
dress and broad frilled cap ; a man with a face " pale 
to sickliness," and a little old lady ; in yet another 
narrative we make the acquaintance, successively, 
of an old man, a large white " waddlewayed" dog, 
" a white figure " not more precisely described, a 
stout middle-aged woman with large flapping frills 
and a baby, and a shower of blood. In one of the 
best attested cases in our collection the dress of a 
female figure is variously described by different 
witnesses as " greyish or mauve," "a lilac print," 
" white," ''light," "red," " slate coloured silk with 
red cloak " ; and the hair is described as " fair," 
''dark," "brown," and "brownish." The events 
occurred in the years 1885-6-7, and the accounts 
were written, in some cases, within a few weeks of 
their occurrence. If a longer interval had been 
allowed to elapse between the events and their 
record it would seem not improbable that this more 
than Homeric latitude of colour epithets might have 
been reduced to uniformity. From the same narra- 
tive it appears that, in addition to the polychromatic 
figure or figures referred to above, there were seen 
in the same house, by various percipients, a man 
with an evil face in a white working suit, " a dark 
swarthy-looking man with very black whiskers 
dressed like a merchant sailor," and a " devilish 
face " and hands with no body attached. In two, at 
least, out of the very small number of cases in which 
we have been able to trace the occurrence of visual 



308 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

phenomena in the same house through two or more 
successive tenancies, the character of the figures is 
found to vary. 

Again, in other cases it is by no means clear that 
the apparitions seen on different occasions bore any 
marked resemblance. And, speaking generally, the 
similarity of the figures seen in many cases, where 
the differences are less striking, is rather assumed 
from the absence of recorded variations than 
demonstrated by any detailed agreement in the 
accounts received by us ; the descriptions given by 
different witnesses being frequently too vague to 
admit of any precise comparison. 

(2.) The identification of the phantom is naturally 
a point upon which the imagination fastens, and 
in traditional accounts the ghost is very generally 
recognised directly, or by inference. Moreover, in 
two first-hand cases which we have seen reason to 
reject as untrustworthy, the figure is asserted to 
have been recognised. In authentic, and especially 
in recent narratives, recognition or identification of 
the figure is rare. A few such cases, of non-re- 
current phantasms, have been cited in the previous 
chapter. In the two cases which follow, a recurrent 
phantasm of the local type is recognised or, at 
least, identified with some plausibility. 

In the first case there are some grounds for 
thinking that the figure seen, by several witnesses, 
bore a resemblance to a child who had died in the 
house many years before. But the identification 
rests on description only ; since none of those who 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 309 

saw the face of the phantasm had seen the sup- 
posed original. 

IV.— Mrs. H. (1883?), wife of Dr. H., writes that twenty 
years or more previously, Dr. H., running up-stairs one night 
about 9 p.m., saw a little child run in front of him into Mrs. 
H.'s room. The landing was lighted by gas. He mistook the 
figure for his own child, aged two or three, but, on searching, 
found the child fast asleep. Mrs. H. was at once told by Dr. 
H. of his experience. Dr. H. has from time to time heard 
loud knocks and other unaccountable noises in the house. 
Dr. H. writes later that he has had one other visual hallucination, 
and has heard unaccountable noises. 

Mrs. A. (formerly Miss H.) (1883?) rose one morning 
(June, 1877) between five and six a.m., with her sister, to read. 
Looking towards her sister's room, which adjoined her own, 
Mrs. A. saw a little figure in white standing near the table. 
She did not see the face, possibly because she is shortsighted. 
Miss G. H. had already left her room. Mrs. A., being nerv- 
ous, ran out of the room. No other hallucinations. 

Miss G. H. (1883 ?), on the same occasion and at about the 
same moment, passing the room of another sister, saw through 
the half-open door the figure of a child standing inside the 
room about eighteen inches from the door. Miss G. H. shut 
the door, thinking at the moment that the figure was her 
sister ; but opened it again at once, and found the figure gone, 
and her sister asleep. The figure had a dark complexion, 
hair, and eyes, a thin oval face, and a mournful look as if full 
of trouble. It appeared to be about nine or ten years old. 
No other hallucinations. 

Miss J. A. A. (1880) was staying with the H's in July, 1879. 
One morning about dawn, when she was awake, the door of 
her room opened and shut quietly. She said " Come in." 
Then the door opened again, the curtains of a hanging ward- 
robe rustled, and she felt a strange unearthly sensation that 
she was not alone. A few minutes later she saw at the foot 
of the bed a child of seven or nine years old. The figure 



310 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAI RESEARCH. 

glided towards her on the bed — a little girl in her night-dress, 
with dark hair and a very white face. Miss A. saw the face 
clearly ; the hands were clasped, the eyes had a look of en- 
treaty and of great trouble. Then the figure touched Miss A. 
with an icy cold hand and vanished. Miss A. had not, at the 
time, heard of the previous apparitions in the house. She 
told her friends, however, what she had seen, and later re- 
ceived from them an account of their experiences. 

Mrs. H. adds that when they originally took the house 
(about 1850) it was divided in two : in the smaller part lived 
a Mr. M. and his little girl J. M. J. M. had fine dark eyes, 
black hair, oval face, and a pale olive complexion. She died 
in the house— in the room where Mrs. A. saw the figure — on 
January 21, 1854, aged ten years. (Mrs. H. enclosed a cer- 
tificate of the death.) 

Mrs. H. adds that some time after the appearance to Miss 
A. she described J. M. to her daughter G., who at once ex- 
claimed that the description answered to the figure which she 
had seen. 1 

In this case, again, there is a reasonable pre- 
sumption that none of the percipients had heard of 
any experience previous to her own. The similar- 
ity of the various appearances, however, and their 
common resemblance to the deceased J. M., are not 
sufficiently established to bear a very close scrutiny. 
The first percipient, Dr. H., mistook the figure 
which he saw for that of his little boy of two or 
three, or his little girl of four years of age ; and 
Mrs. A. did not see the face of the figure at all. 
Further it must be remembered that Miss G. H's 
description — the most detailed of all — was not 
written until some years after the event, and after 
the appearance of the figure had been discussed 

1 Proc. S. P. P., vi., pp. 270 et seq. 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 3II 

with Mrs. H., who held a theory of her own on the 
matter, and had, as she told us, given to her 
daughter a minute description of the dead child. 
It is impossible to avoid a suspicion that under the 
circumstances the definiteness of outline in Miss 
G. H's description may be due to a combination 
of her mother's narrative with her own experience. 
The same criticism applies to Miss J. A. A's ac- 
count, which was not written until some months 
after the event, and after she had heard from her 
cousins of the previous appearances. Not much 
reliance can be placed on the details of a descrip- 
tion written under such conditions. The most, it 
would seem, that can be said is, that in a house 
where a little girl is known to have died, a figure 
resembling a little child or young girl was seen on 
four different occasions by four apparently inde- 
pendent witnesses. That, of course, is a note- 
worthy series of coincidences. 

A remarkable case of the same type is printed 
in the Proc. S. P. R. y vol. viii., pp. 311-332. The 
appearances in this case were much more frequent. 
" Miss Morton," the principal percipient, saw the 
figure on many occasions ; and it was seen — some- 
times more than once — by several other inmates of 
the house. The figure, according to the descrip- 
tions given by the various witnesses, presented al- 
ways the same appearance — a tall woman dressed 
in black, as if in widow's weeds ; the face partly 
concealed by a handkerchief held in the right hand. 
(This last detail is mentioned by three witnesses 



312 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

only out of the six whose accounts we have re- 
ceived.) Footsteps were also heard in the house 
by several persons. There were rumours that the 
house had the reputation of being haunted prior to 
the occupancy of the Morton family. The figure 
has been identified with Mrs. S., the widow of a 
former owner of the house, mainly on the ground 
that several people who had known Mrs. S. pro- 
fessed to recognise her in the figure described by 
the Mortons. Apart from any question of the 
identification of the figure, however, the case is 
evidentially valuable, being substantiated by a 
series of contemporary letters written by " Miss 
Morton " to a friend. 

Another case of the same kind, though of inferior 
evidential value, will be found in Proc, iii., pp. 
133-6. In this case the apparition followed the 
family from one house to another. 

(3) Exclusive of the instances cited in the previ- 
ous chapter, I have examined twenty cases in our 
collection, in which information outside the possible 
range of the percipient's knowledge is said to have 
been given by a phantasm, or in a dream purport- 
ing to represent a deceased person ; and three 
others in which a catastrophe has been averted by 
similar means. Of these twenty-three cases, two 
only are undoubtedly at first-hand. The first gives 
an account of the discovery of the dead body of a 
suicide through a dream. The evidence here is in- 
sufficient ; the person who was in a position to give 
the most conclusive corroboration to the percipi- 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 3 I 3 

ent's narrative declined to answer any questions, or 
give any information whatever. And the place 
where the body was found — a neighbouring sum- 
mer-house — seems not beyond the range of con- 
jecture, unconscious or otherwise. In the second 
case 5 a skeleton was actually discovered in a spot 
indicated by the percipient, which he stated was 
revealed to him in a dream. Unfortunately the 
percipient was dead some years before the story 
reached us, and we have had to rely upon his testi- 
mony as recorded. The discovery seems suscepti- 
ble of a more commonplace explanation. Of the 
remaining twenty-one narratives, none of which, as 
said, are at first-hand, there are six cases in which 
a murder is alleged to have been revealed ; two 
cases in which information is given as to the con- 
dition of a body lawfully buried ; two cases in which 
the phantasm shows a laudable desire to discharge 
his just debts ; and eight cases in which the appari- 
tion gives warning of impending death, indicates 
the whereabouts of important documents, or sup- 
plies some other information. Of these, one treats 
of a missing will discovered through the agency of 
a deceased uncle. The story was never published, 
and as, since its receipt, we have seen reason to 
doubt the good faith of the narrator, and as a 
critical examination has made it evident that the 
necessary attestations to the truth of the narrative, 
purporting to be written and signed by various 

1 Quoted and discussed in Mr. Myers's paper in Proceedings, vol. vi., pp. 
35-41, and by me, vol. vi., p. 303. 



3 14 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

persons, are in the same handwriting variously dis- 
guised, it is perhaps not unreasonable to conjecture 
that the story itself lacks objective foundation. 

There can be no question that purposive or in- 
telligent action, whilst it is a common attribute of 
the ghost as he exists in popular imagination, is 
not characteristic of the apparitions of which we 
have authentic reports. 

Nearly all the twenty-three narratives above re- 
ferred to, however, are concerned with non-recur- 
rent apparitions. The case given below is, I think, 
unique in our records as an instance of a phantasm 
of the " local " type manifesting an intelligent pur- 
pose. It will be seen that in this narrative also 
the figure is asserted, with some plausibility, to 
have been recognised as that of a former occupant 
of the house. 

V. — The house in this case stands in the suburb of a large 
town in the west of England. There is some evidence that it 
had the reputation of being " haunted " as far back as 1865 or 
thereabouts. But it is stated that no rumour of the kind had 
reached the present occupier, Mr. Z., or his servants, prior to 
the events related below. 

Mary G. (March, 1888), the nursemaid, three times in one 
evening saw the figure of a man in the dressing-room. Later, 
in November, 1885, she saw, about 8 p.m., in a dimly lighted 
passage, a woman in a light dress coming towards her. 
Thought it was the kitchen maid. But when the figure came 
up to her it moved through her and disappeared. P'eatures 
not seen. Mary G. saw the same figure on the following 
night in the same place, and once again in March, 1886, in 
full gas-light, outside the dressing-room door. The figure 
seemed this time very tall, taller than a man. On another 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 315 

occasion she saw a woman in a brown dress. She also heard 
many unaccountable noises in the house. No other hallucin- 
ations. 

W. L. (July, 1888), butler, entered Mr. Z.'s service in Octo- 
ber, 1885. Was much disturbed from the outset by loud noises 
— as of barrels rolling about, doors banging, men wrestling to- 
gether, etc. On March 9, 1886, when coming out from the 
library, he saw standing before him a figure dressed in a 
brown garment with two tassels at the side. The head could 
not be seen, only a black mist in its place. He turned to run 
away, and felt a touch, as from a cold hand, on his left side, 
and was ill for the rest of the day. Later, when decorating 
the dinner-table with flowers, he looked up and saw the same 
figure. Some weeks later Mr. and Mrs. Z. and a few friends 
tried table-turning. W. L. coming up with the grog tray saw 
the same figure again. 

The spirit communicating through the table then promised 
to appear at 11 p.m. one evening in the drawing-room, and W. 
L. was requested to be present. The gas was turned low and 
the drawing-room door left open. As the clock struck n, 
" it " walked slowly in. The dress was of the same shape as in 
the apparition seen by W. L., with large loose sleeves and two 
tassels •; it seemed as if made of light Japanese flowered silk. 
The face was haggard-looking, with a long thin nose ; the hair 
fair and hanging over the shoulders. The figure remained for 
some minutes, disappeared when the gas was turned up ; and 
then re-appeared after a short interval. W. L. followed the 
figure to the cellar, and the spirit indicated that treasure was 
buried there. Two days later, when W. L. was in the cellar, 
the figure again appeared and indicated the precise spot where 
the treasure was concealed. The floor of the cellar was dug up, 
but no treasure was found. 

W. L. saw the figure on two or three other occasions. Has 
had previous hallucinations, but not so definite as these. 

Mr. Z. (July, 1886) sent us an account of the seances. He 
himself had heard strange noises in the house. At the seances 
seven persons, including W. L., were present. Of these, three, 
VV. L., Mrs Z., and another lady, saw the figure. The others 



316 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

could see nothing. The figure appeared at the seances on four 
separate occasions. 

Mrs. Z. has, unfortunately, so far declined to furnish a written 
narrative of her experiences. At a personal interview, how- 
ever, in March, 1888, she gave me a very full account of her 
share in the matter, which entirely corresponded with that 
given by Mr. Z. and the butler. The seances referred to lasted 
for about six weeks in June and July, 1886. The woman's 
figure described by W. L. was, Mrs. Z. told me, also seen by 
her and by Mrs. M. during these seances, but at no other time. 
So far as she knew all three saw the same figure. Mrs. Z. saw 
the face distinctly, and subsequently recognised it in a photo- 
graph of a lady who had lived in the house a few years pre- 
viously. Mrs. Z. did not come to the neighbourhood until some 
years after this lady's death, and had never previously seen her, 
or any picture of her. She has had no other halluci?iation. 

As regards the recognition of the photograph, 
Mr. Z. writes in May, 1888 : 

You ask me to tell you my account of the recognition of the 
photograph. 

I think the butler's recognition does not amount to much. 

It (/. e., the photograph) was lying on my table one morning, 
and on his coming into the room I asked him if he had ever 
seen anyone like it. He said the eyes, forehead, and nose he 
knew, but that he somehow could not put a name to it, though 
he had seen the person several times. I told him who it was 
supposed to be, and then he said, " The eyes I should have 
known anywhere, but I have never seen the whole face so dis- 
tinctly as this photo gives it," or words to that effect. 

The second case is certainly more remarkable. 

A gentleman in C, hearing of the supposed appearances and 
of my wife's having seen the apparition, brought over half a 
dozen photos, amongst others one of what is supposed to be 
the spirit, to test my wife. She was not present in the room 
when he arrived, but came in about a quarter of an hour later. 
We purposely refrained from mentioning the subject at all. 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 3 1 7 

Taking up the photos I asked her if any of them reminded 
her of a friend, all the pictures being about twenty years old. 
She looked them through, and thought one an early one of a 
friend who was present. 

I took up one and tossed it across the tea-table, and only 
uttered the words " Who 's that ? " and she, after looking at it 
for a moment, said, " Oh, that 's the ghost, where on earth did 
it come from ? " 

We were all rather staggered at her recognition, especially the 
gentleman who brought the pictures, as he had laughed the 
whole thing to scorn. 1 

Under the conditions described it must be ad- 
mitted to be possible that Mrs. Z. received uncon- 
scious indications, from the manner or look of 
those around, of the answer that was expected of 
her. But even so, her recognition of the photo- 
graph was certainly a remarkable incident. Our 
wonder, however, is somewhat diminished when we 
learn, as Mr. and Mrs. Z. informed me, that 
Colonel Y. had been acquainted with the deceased 
lady whom the phantasm was supposed to represent. 
Now Colonel Y. had been present at the various 
seances at which the figure had appeared ; and as 
it appears, from Mr. Z.'s account, that those who 
were privileged to see the figure described at 
the time what they saw to the others, we can con- 
ceive it possible that the hallucination might take a 
definite outline under the guidance of leading 
questions and unconscious hints from the Colonel, 
who of all the spectators was likely to take the 
most interest in the details of the appearance. 

1 Proc. S. P. P., vol. vi., p. 276. 



318 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

The incident of the recognition of the photograph 
is thus deprived of much of its significance ; but 
apart from this the story presents some remarkable 
features. The hallucinations in this case were un- 
usually frequent and unusually persistent ; and the 
appearance of a phantasm, on several distinct occa- 
sions, and for a period of certainly some minutes, 
to three persons simultaneously, is a phenomenon 
perhaps without parallel in our records. The ap- 
pearance of a phantasm at a predicted time is also 
very unusual, if not unique, except when it is the 
result of post-hypnotic suggestion. There are 
some parallel cases of figures seen by several per- 
sons simultaneously at a seance, where there was 
no ground for suspecting fraud. Indeed, as already 
suggested, 1 it seems possible that the conditions of 
a Spiritualistic seance, admittedly favourable to the 
production of abnormal states, may also be favour- 
able to the production and communication of hallu- 
cinations. 

It will be noticed, moreover, that here also the 
phenomena began with noises, which appear to 
have exercised a very disturbing influence on the 
butler, W. L. Moreover, the two chief witnesses, 
and the only witnesses who saw any apparition when 
alone, appear to have been unusually subject to im- 
pressions of the kind, and were not highly educated 
persons. 

(4) I have examined thirteen cases in our col- 
lection in which human remains are alleged to 

1 See ante, Chapter IV. ad fin. 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 3 19 

have been discovered on the scene of unexplained 
ghostly manifestations. But in three instances 
only does the actual discovery rest upon unques- 
tionable evidence. 1 In four other cases, the whole 
of the evidence is second-hand, or even more re- 
mote ; and in one of these the discovery of the 
skeleton is explicitly contradicted on evidence which 
may be taken as authoritative. In the eighth case, 
the evidence for the finding of a skeleton rests on 
the uncorroborated memory of a child of six, who 
does not profess to have seen the skeleton dug up ; 
this story appears to have been first committed to 
writing nearly fifty years after the alleged event. 
In the ninth case,* the evidence for the skeleton 
depends on the narrator's remembrance of a con- 
versation held at least thirty years before ; and in 
two other cases the authority for the alleged dis- 
covery is not given. In the twelfth case, the story, 
though first-hand, is from an illiterate person. In 
the last case, 3 the evidence for the finding of the 
skeletons is not first-hand, and the narrator is not 
inclined to attribute the apparition seen " to other 
than natural causes." 

(5) In nearly all the second-hand narratives, and 
in a very large proportion of those which have 
been given to us by the actual percipients, a tragedy 
is reported to have taken place in the locality where 
the manifestations occurred. The tragedy may 
have been a premature death, a murder, a sui- 

1 One of these cases is quoted in Proceedings, vol. vi., p. 42. 

2 Proc^, vol. vi., p. 43. 3 Proc, vol. vi., p. 235* 



320 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

cide, sometimes the death of a miser. The ac- 
count of the tragedy is often very circumstantial ; 
but it usually rests upon tradition alone, and we 
cannot safely assume the report to afford evidence 
of anything but the tendency of tradition to con- 
form to preconceived ideas of the general fitness 
of things. In one case, indeed, the narrator states 
that he had himself searched the parish registers, 
and ascertained the date of the death, or rather 
deaths, the tragedy in this case taking the form of 
a murder, and the subsequent suicide of the mur- 
derer. The month and day were stated to corre- 
spond with the date of the appearance of the 
phantasm. A prolonged and careful search of the 
registers, however, failed to corroborate our inform- 
ant's statement ; and we have learnt from another 
source that the double event referred to never took 
place ; and that the alleged murderer actually died 
in another part of the country, and at another time 
of year. 1 There are, however, a few cases in which 
we have sufficient evidence that the death did occur 
as alleged. In one such case 2 the evidence is fur- 
nished by a tombstone in a neighbouring church- 
yard ; and it seems not unlikely that the tragedy, 
thus solidly and obtrusively attested, may actually 
have been the cause of the disturbances in the house, 
though not in the precise manner suggested in the 
narrative. Two other cases of the kind (Nos. IV. 
and V.) have already been quoted, in both of which 

i See the account of this case given in Proc. S. P. R., vol. i.. pp. 106, 
107, and Journal, vol. ii., p. 3. 
2 G. 182, Journal, vol. ii., September, 1S86. 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 321 

the facts of the life and death were within the 
knowledge of the percipients, and the person 
whom the phantasm was supposed to resemble had 
been known personally to some of those present in 
the house. 

Two other cases in which a tragedy is alleged to 
have occurred are given below. In the first case 
the evidence for the tragedy — the robbery and mur- 
der of two ladies in the house — is of a very unsub- 
stantial kind ; and it is not unlikely that the legend 
was invented or adapted to account for the facts. 
But the appearance of hallucinatory figures through- 
out a long series of years is fairly well substanti- 
ated. It is to be noted that in both these cases the 
phenomena persisted through two separate tenan- 
cies of the house ; in each case changed their 
character with the tenant ; and finally ceased alto- 
gether with the third change of occupancy. 

VI. — J House is an old Elizabethan manor house, in 

the west of England. 

Mr. C. C. Massey writes (1885) that he had learnt from an 
old lady of seventy-five, a cousin of his, that when sleeping in 
the house in about 1835, with Mr. Massey's mother, both were 
disturbed by the sound as of clashing of chains and the rust- 
ling of a silk dress along the corridor. Mr. Massey adds that 
he had heard, prior to i860, that the house was reputed to be 
haunted. 

The Revd. Darrell Horlock writes (1884) that he took the 
house in 186 1. He had previously heard reports of its being 
haunted, as had the servants also. From the first the servants 
complained of rumblings, whistlings, clankings, and displace- 
ments of furniture. One night in the spring or summer of 
1862, Mr. Horlock suddenly awoke with an icy-cold shiver 



322 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

and saw at the foot of the bed, in the cross light from two 
windows, distinctly visible by the moonlight, the figure of an 
old lady. She was attired in a black poke bonnet which ex- 
tended far over the face, and a dark gown and grey shawl. 
Her eyes were hollow and shrunken and her face was wrinkled. 
Mr. Horlock sat up and studied the figure. He noticed that 
though the figure seemed to be opaque, yet through it he 
could distinctly see the knobs of the drawers in the wardrobe 
behind. After gazing at him for two or three minutes the 
figure suddenly disappeared. Mr. Horlock did not waken his 
wife, nor mention the circumstance to her until they had left 
the house. He told his sister-in-law, Miss Saward, under 
strict promise of secrecy. No other hallucinations. 

Shortly after this the footman, bringing lights into the 
smoking-room one evening, stated in the presence of Mr. 
and Mrs. Horlock and Miss Saward, that he had just seen a 
lady, whom he mistook for Miss Saward, come down the front 
stairs and go into the drawing-room. 

After they had left the house in 1863, an old housekeeper, 
Mrs. P., told them that she had seen a ghost, and described a 
figure like that seen by Mr. Horlock. Mr. Horlock adds that 
dogs showed unaccountable terror in the house. 

Mrs. Horlock (1873) and Miss Saward (1885) confirm gen- 
erally Mr. Horlock's account of the apparition seen by himself 
and the stories told by the footman and Mrs. P., of the unac- 
countable noises heard in the house, of the uncanny feelings 
produced, and of the strange terror of the dogs. 

After Mr. Horlock's departure in 1863, the house was occu- 
pied, apparently until 1864, by the D's, and then remained 
empty until 1867, when Mr. B. and his family entered on their 
tenancy. Mr. B. writes (1882) that he had heard rumours that 
the house was haunted, but had discredited them. On his first 
day in the house, however, he was engaged about 3 p.m. in un- 
packing books, when he heard a rustling sound, as of a lady's 
dress in the passage outside. Looking through the open door 
he distinctly saw walk along the passage until it disappeared 
behind the wall of the staircase the figure of a lady in a kind 
of blue gauze dress, with long hair hanging down her back. 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 323 

He adds that Mary Ann, one of the servants, stated that 
when shutting up a window in a bedroom, she heard a rustling 
noise behind her, and turning saw a figure of a woman at the 
open door. She was looking at Mary Ann with a sad expres- 
sion ; large earnest eyes, thin long face, sunken cheeks. She 
had a dark dress with short sleeves, and her hands and arms 
were very white. She then went partly up the staircase, to the 
door of a room, and vanished. On another occasion, Mary 
Ann said that she saw the figure going down the staircase to 
the same door. 

In 1868, Captain H., a relative of the family, saw a lady in 
a blue dress, the hair dressed as in Hogarth's time, and wear- 
ing a sort of stomacher and long train. Very thin with sharp 
features, and her face extremely sad. 

In 1873, S. H., one of the servants, twice dreamt that a tall 
woman, wearing a cap and a dark dress, with something white 
on the shoulders, and very white hands, appeared and bade 
her follow her to the library. 

Mrs. Oliver, sometime governess in the house, writes (1884) 
that on the first Sunday in July, 1868, she was going up-stairs 
about 4 p.m. when she saw a lady dressed in blue come from 
Mrs. B.'s bedroom along the upper hall and into Mr. B.'s 
dressing-room. The figure passed close to her. The dress 
rustled as it went, and the feet of the figure were bare. In 
passing Mr. B.'s dressing-room door Mrs. Oliver saw the image 
of the figure reflected in a mirror. Mrs. Oliver supposed it to 
be a real figure, until a search was made of the house. 

Mr. B. left J House in 1875. Considerable alterations 

were made to the house, and in 1876 the house was again 
tenanted. The present occupants up to 1883 had not been 
disturbed in any way. 1 

In the next case we have ascertained that a sui- 
cide had taken place in the house some years before 
the commencement of the disturbances ; but it does 
not appear that the fact was known to the oc.cu- 

1 Journal, S. P. E., ii., April, 1886. 



324 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

pants of the house until afterwards. The case is a 
remarkable and instructive one in many ways, es- 
pecially from the persistence and the great variety 
of the hallucinations. It will be noted that for 
some of the later manifestations we have the evi- 
dence of a contemporary diary. 

VII. — Miss L. Morris (June, 1888) went in October, 1882, 
to live with an aunt in a small terrace-house at a town in the 
south of England. From the beginning of their tenancy they 
were much disturbed by the sound of heavy footsteps and 
other loud noises. About 5 p.m. one afternoon in November, 
1882, when it was still light, Miss Morris, going into the back 
drawing-room to fetch some music, saw standing by the closed 
door the figure of a woman heavily robed in deepest black 
from head to foot ; her face intensely sad and deadly pale. 
Miss Morris uttered an exclamation, and the figure suddenly 
vanished. She told no one of her experience. 

In the winter of 1885, Miss Morris again saw the figure of a 
woman clothed in black walk slowly down the hall in front of 
her and disappear. 

Throughout their occupancy of the house, which ceased in 
December, 1886, she was continually disturbed by bangs, 
knockings on the doors, and other loud noises. For a period 
of some weeks, too, the front-door bell was rung so constantly 
that they removed it from the wire. No other hallucinations. 

The house remained empty until November, 1.887, when it 
was taken by Mrs. G., widow of an officer in the army, and 
her two daughters, aged about nine and ten. 

Mrs. G. (June, 1888) was disturbed about a fortnight after 
their entry by sobs, moans, and the sound of a voice saying, 
" Oh ! do forgive me." Later came the tramping of feet, and 
loud noises like the movement of furniture. Loud knocks 
were also heard on bedroom doors. One morning Mrs. G. 
heard her elder daughter, " Edith," give a loud scream, and 
learnt from her that she had seen a dreadful white face peep- 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 325 

ing round the door. Both children were much frightened 
by this occurrence, and by the strange noises which they, as 
well as Mrs. G., seem to have heard at night. Later, Edith 
said she had seen a little woman pass by her ; and that she 
often heard the sound of " pitter patter." Again, on Feb. 
6, 1888, the younger child, " Florence," said that, in passing a 
room, she saw a man standing by the window, staring fixedly. 
He had blue eyes, dark brown hair, and freckles. (The note 
in the diary of this incident runs, " Florence ' saw an apparition 
in brown at 7.30 a.m.") The children frequently saw lights in 
their bedroom ; and Florence once saw a white skirt hanging 
from the ceiling. On March 20th, on going up to bed, they 
saw a figure in white. On another occasion, Florence saw a 
figure crawling on the floor as if it would spring on her. 

Mrs. G., when washing her hands one morning about 10 a.m., 
saw at her elbow two human faces which vanished instantly. 
She also heard a voice, which she thought was her child's, cry 
" Darling." The children, who were in another part of the 
house, had not spoken. 

Finally, on May 8th, as the children were nervous and un- 
well, Mrs. G. left the house, a servant remaining behind with 
her mother and sister to keep her company. But the noises 
which they heard at night so frightened them that they also 
had to leave abruptly. No other hallucinations. 

[Mrs. G.'s account was written in June, 1888 ; but most of the 
incidents were recorded at the time in a diary, which I was 
allowed to inspect.] 

Anne H. (June, 1888), the servant, corroborates Mrs. G.'s 
statements as to the figures seen by the children, and the noises 
heard, especially after Mrs. G.'s departure from the house. 
Anne one night in her bedroom saw a strange shadow which 
went right along the window and passed on to the wall opposite. 
No other halluci?iations. 

I received from the two children, in July, 1888, a 
viva-voce account of their experiences, which agreed 
with that given by Mrs. G. 

1 This is not the real name. 



326 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Mrs. G.'s experiences became a matter of common 
talk in the town ; and a few days after her removal 
from the house, three gentlemen paid visits to it on 
two different occasions. 

Mr. W. O. D., barrister, and the Revd. G. O. — two of these 
gentlemen — write ( July, 1888 ) that on May 23rd they heard 
bell-ringing and an unaccountable crash. Mr. O. also saw in- 
distinctly a small column of misty vapour. On May 28th, 
about 9.30 p.m., as they stood in the hall, Mr. O. saw a form 
glide from the backroom to the front. Mr. D. saw only part 
of the dress of this " super-material being." After Mr. O. had 
said prayers for exorcism and rest for the soul, the party left. 1 

It should be added that it has been ascertained 
that in March, 1879, a woman hanged herself in the 
house. Rumours of this incident appear to have 
reached Mrs. G., though not until after the com- 
mencement of the disturbances. 

An associate of the Society for Psychical Research, 
Mr. X. Y., and his wife occupied the house from 
August, 1888, to September, 1889, and about forty 
visitors slept in the house during this period. 
Nothing abnormal was seen during these thirteen 
months, but a few unaccountable noises were heard. 
Thus, one evening at 8.30, Mr. X. Y. was alone in 
the house, writing, when he heard a noise as if half 
a brick were being bumped about in the passage. 
The noise ceased when he went into the passage, 
but twice re-commenced. A search discovered no- 
thing. On another occasion Mr. and Mrs. Y. heard 
the three gut strings of a guitar which hung on the 

1 Proc. S. P. R., vol. vi., p. 256. 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 327 

wall sound a chord three times in succession. On 
the last occasion, Mr. Y. was looking at the guitar 
and could detect no movement. 1 

In the next narrative, the figure, as described by 
one of the witnesses, was of a ghastly and terrifying 
kind. This is a rare feature in authentic ghost 
stories. 

VIII.— Mrs. G. (May, 1888), in September, 1887, took a 
house in the west of London, part of which she let in lodgings. 
She frequently, especially at night, heard rustling noises as of 
ladies moving about in silk dresses. She was much frightened 
one night by sounds in her room and afterwards always kept 
her candles burning. One night at the end of November she 
awoke at 1 a.m. with the feeling that someone was in the room. 
Turning round she saw just opposite to her the figure of a 
woman, apparently about fifty, with dark hair and eyes, a red 
dress and a mob cap. The figure bent slowly back, and dis- 
played what at first Mrs. G. thought to be a wide mouth, but 
which presently revealed itself as a gaping wound in the throat. 
Mrs. G. adjured the figure in the name of the Trinity without 
result. She then rapped on the wall separating her room from 
that of two lodgers : the two lodgers responded to the sum- 
mons, and as they knocked at the door the figure slowly van- 
ished like a shadow. The room throughout this scene was 
lighted by two candles. 

Mr. I. Guthrie (May, 1888), one of the lodgers, woke up on 
the night referred to, which was about Christmas time, and 
heard a sound as of a woman in a silk dress moving away from 
the side of his bed into the adjoining room. Then he heard 
Mrs. G. speaking, and afterwards a rap on the wall. He and 
his brother went to the door, which was opened by Mrs. G., 
who appeared in a state of extreme agitation bordering on 
prostration. 

Mr. Guthrie had previously heard the noises described by 

1 Proc. S. P. R., vol. vi., pp. 311-2. 



328 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Mrs. G., and on at least one occasion he had seen a figure. He 
was mysteriously awakened, and saw in the middle of the room 
a moderately tall female form, clearly defined, as of a real 
body, which, as he looked, moved out of the room through the 
closed door with a rustling noise dying away in the distance. 
No other hallucinations. 

Mr. D. Guthrie (May, 1888) confirms his brother's account 
of the disturbances, but had seen nothing himself. 

Miss H. (28 June, 1888), a niece of Mrs. G., had also 
been disturbed by strange noises. On the night of Wednes- 
day, the 20th June, 1888, when sleeping in the same bed with 
Mrs. G., she suddenly awoke to find herself sitting upright in 
bed. It was just dawning, and she saw close to her the figure 
of a tall woman, dressed in black. The figure disappeared into 
the wall. No other hallucinations. 

Mrs. G. adds that a lodger on the first floor had also seen 
the figure of a woman in a red dress. 1 

In the summer of 1888, about ten or twelve per- 
sons, in succession, including myself, occupied the 
room in which Mrs. G. had seen her vision, but no 
unusual experience was recorded. 

The last case which I shall quote is one of the 
few authentic accounts in the S. P. R. collection of 
a phantasmal figure being seen by successive wit- 
nesses in the same locality out-of-doors, and in full 
daylight. 

IX. — Miss M.W. Scott (Feb. 20, 1893), when returning home- 
ward between 5 and 6 p.m. on the 7th May, 1892, saw on a 
country road in Roxburghshire, a few yards beyond her, a tall 
man dressed in black. He turned a corner of the road, where 
she could still see his figure between the hedges, and then ab- 
ruptly disappeared. A little distance on, Miss Scott met her 
sister, Miss Louisa Scott, who had also seen a corresponding 

1 Proc. S. P. R., vi., p. 251. 



HA CX TED HOUSES. 329 

figure, and had been puzzled by its sudden disappearance. 
One day towards the end of July, about the same hour, Miss 
M. W. Scott and another sister saw the same figure. This time 
he faded away into the bank on their right. He was dressed 
entirely in black, long coat, gaiters, and knee-breeches, and his 
legs were very thin. Round his throat was a wide white cra- 
vat ; and he wore a low-crowned hat. His face was thin and 
deadly pale. " He was dressed as a clergyman of the last 
century, and we have an old picture in the house for which 
he might have sat." 

Miss Scott heard that two young girls, at about the same 
time, saw the figure in the same lane. They were frightened 
and ran away ; but looking back saw the figure gradually fade 
away. It is reported that the apparition had been seen two 
years before by some boys ; and that blue lights were seen on 
the same spot after dark. 

Miss M. W. Scott (June 14, 1893) writes again that on June 
1 2th, at about 9.50 a. m., in walking on the same road, she saw a 
figure in which she thought she recognised an acquaintance, 
some way ahead. She hurried to overtake it, and found that 
it was the same phantasmal figure, which seemed to float or 
skim away as she approached. He turned round twice and 
looked at her, and finally faded from view by the hedge to the 
right. 

Miss Louisa Scott gives an account corresponding to her 
sister's of the first appearance, but she saw the figure in a 
slightly different position at a different time. She does not 
seem to have received so clear an impression of the whole 
figure. She describes the man as dressed like a clergyman. 

Miss M. W. Scott adds that there is a legend that a child 
was murdered in the lane near the spot where the figure was 
seen. 1 

(6) The only evidence, so far as I am aware, in 
first-hand cases for a visible phantasm appearing on 
a particular anniversary is the narrative, already re- 

1 Journal, S. P. R., Nov.. 1893. 



330 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC AI RESEARCH. 

f erred to, given to us by Mr. X. Z., and withdrawn 
on account of serious discrepancies discovered in 
the evidence. There are one or two first-hand 
narratives in which inexplicable sounds are stated 
to have recurred on fixed dates, or at fixed hours ; 
but the evidence for the supernormal nature of the 
sounds themselves seems insufficient. 

There are other types of ghosts with which the 
reader is no doubt familiar — the Banshee, the 
ghost attached to a particular family and appear- 
ing in the form of a wailing woman, the rustle of 
paper, a mouse, a white bird, or other portent, to 
give warning of impending death ; the phantom 
carriage which rolls up the drive by the light of 
the winters moon ; the small dark spectres which 
haunt the Cornish mines ; the black hound ; the 
headless horseman ; the phantom cavalcade. But 
stories of this kind for the most part rest upon tra- 
dition only, and seem to belong to folk-lore rather 
than to psychical research. In no case is the evi- 
dence at present obtained sufficient to justify de- 
tailed consideration. 

We may gather, then, from this brief survey of 
the evidence presented by the best attested narra- 
tives, that the authentic ghost brings no message 
from the dead to the living ; that he rarely appears 
in recognisable or even constant shape ; that his 
connection with skeletons and tragedies is obscure 
and uncertain. He is, in fact, a fugitive, irrelevant, 
and for the most part polymorphic phantasm. He 
flits as idly across the scene as the figure cast by a 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 33 I 

magic-lantern, and he possesses, apparently, as lit- 
tle purpose, volition, or intelligence. The atmos- 
phere of mystery which surrounds the ghostly 
figure is furnished by the traditional belief of the 
witnesses ; they magnify a meagre reality with the 
eyes of faith : 

" Ah ! what white thing at the door has cross'd, 

Sister Helen ? 

Ah ! what is this that sighs in the frost ? 

A soul that 's lost as mine is lost, 

Little Brother ! " 

Often, indeed, the appearance is so brief and so 
unsubstantial that it can be called little more than 
the suggestion of a figure. It bears as little re- 
semblance to the aggrieved miser, the repentant 
monk, the unquiet spirit of the murderer or his 
victim, with whom the legends of our childhood 
and the dinner-parties of our maturer years have 
made us familiar, as the dragons whom Siegfried 
slew bear to the winged lizards whose bones lie 
buried in the Sussex weald. 

Even when the several narrators represent the 
figures seen on different occasions as identical, 
examination of their evidence makes this identity 
doubtful. Impressions so momentary as these 
must of necessity be very vague and elusive in the 
subsequent memory. The details are likely to be 
filled in after hearing the descriptions of others ; so 
that features discerned or believed to be common 
become more definite in recollection, and discrep- 
ancies tend to disappear. In short, the image 



332 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

which remains in the memories of the percipients 
is apt to resemble a composite photograph, in which 
all the common features are emphasised, and de- 
tails found only in individual cases are blurred or 
faintly indicated. 

The best safe-guard against such sophistication 
of the records would be found in the comparison of 
accounts written by independent observers who had 
never had the opportunity of discussing their ex- 
periences with others. But evidence of this kind 
we have not yet succeeded in obtaining. 

Moreover, it is doubtful how far we can trust the 
statements of our informants that their experiences 
were not communicated to other inmates of the 
house until they also had seen the figure. Memory 
is often treacherous on such matters : and, in fact, 
experience teaches that the memory is not apt to be 
tenacious of points which mar, either in recital or for 
private edification, the dramatic effect of an episode. 

The explanation, then, of the phenomena which 
is suggested by a study of the authentic narratives 
is something of this kind. It will have been noticed 
that in all the cases here quoted l — and the rule is 
almost invariable — visible apparitions were associ- 
ated with inexplicable and terrifying noises : and 
that in most cases these noises are reported to have 
preceded by weeks or months the visible phantasms. 
Because of these noises, or by reason of rumours 
that the house was haunted, the occupants seem 
generally to have been thrown into a nervous and 

1 Except Case IX., where the figure was seen out of doors. 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 333 

expectant state. It is when this nervous state has 
been induced that the " ghost " appears. In two or 
three of the cases a general hallucinatory diathesis, 
almost comparable with that of the famous Mrs. A., 
appears to have been thus established. It is sug- 
gested, then, that the explanation of these curious 
phenomena is that the disquieting knowledge that 
the house is reputed to be haunted, or the occur- 
rence of inexplicable noises, themselves probably 
due to hallucinatory distortion or enlargement of 
real sounds, generate in some of the inmates a men- 
tal condition favourable to the occurrence of hallu- 
cinations of all kinds. It must be admitted, indeed, 
that the explanation suggested rests mainly on con- 
jecture. Outside of the phenomena under discus- 
sion we have little proof of the efficacy of disquiet- 
ing disturbances of a physical kind, and the nervous 
excitement thereby induced, to generate hallucina- 
tions. Some support for the theory may indeed be 
found in the association of genuine hallucinations 
with the spurious physical phenomena dealt with in 
Chapter V. On the other hand it should be noted 
that various members of the Society have occupied 
several of the houses referred to in this chapter 
with the view of seeing or hearing ghosts : and that 
the state of expectancy and nervous excitement in 
which some of us at least passed our nights did not 
produce the effects here supposed. So far as was 
practicable, therefore, under the conditions, we have 
put the theory to proof by experiment with negative 
results. 



334 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Again, thus summarily to dismiss the whole of 
the phenomena attested would perhaps argue the 
prevalence of unconscious misrepresentation to a 
greater extent than we are justified in assuming. 
For, even if allowance is made for the treacherous- 
nessof memory on such points, it must be admitted 
that, in more than one of the cases here cited, there is 
evidence that two or more persons independently 
saw a similar phantasmal figure in the same locality. 
But, if it be thought that the evidence for the oc- 
currence of similar apparitions to independent wit- 
nesses is sufficient to entitle us to frame an hypoth- 
esis, it may be suggested that the later apparitions 
are due possibly to thought-transference from the 
original percipient, brooding over his strange ex- 
perience. At least, in hazarding the conjecture that 
the apparently inexplicable element in these phe- 
nomena, if not due solely to the operation of the 
mythopceic tendency, may be attributed to telepathic 
action on the part of living persons, we are reducing 
to the lowest possible figure our draft on the un- 
known. For, as shown in Chapters VII. and VI II., 
we have grounds for belief in the possibility of such 
action. It must be admitted that the suggested 
extension of telepathic action goes somewhat be- 
yond the facts already established. To discern, 
however, in such narratives as these proofs of post- 
mortem agency involves two assumptions, for either 
of which we have even less scientific warrant : the 
survival after death of some form of consciousness, 
and the affection by this consciousness of the minds 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 335 

of persons still living. Clearly we should not be 
justified in importing these assumptions to explain 
phenomena which are capable of another and less 
dubious interpretation. For we know no reason 
why the dreams of the living should be less potent 
to inspire these vague and unsubstantial visions 
than the imagined dreams of the dead. 



CHAPTER XI. 

PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 

THE S. P. R. has accumulated a considerable 
collection of narratives under the category 
of Premonitions. Writing in 1888, Mrs. Henry 
Sidgwick estimated the number of first-hand cases 
purporting to contain evidence of supernormal 
knowledge of future events at about 240. Since 
that date our own collection has been considerably 
increased. Several cases have also been published 
in the Proceedings of the American S. P. R., in the 
A nnales des Sciences Psychiques, and in other conti- 
nental periodicals. The cases which have been 
passed in review in preparing this estimate of the 
evidence probably number over 300. 

But a mere enumeration of the narratives affords 
a very imperfect measure of the strength of the evi- 
dence. That the thing itself calls for very stringent 
proof it is hardly necessary to say. Foreknowledge 
of the future is more remote from general experi- 
ence, and less conformable to current philosophy, 
than the conception of a new mode of sensuous or 
supersensuous communication. But the evidence 
for prevision so far collected is markedly inferior to 
the evidence of the same kind — the spontaneous 

336 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 337 

cases to wit — for telepathy. And even with the 
help of a large body of experimental proof, the 
doctrine of telepathy, as we have seen, still hangs 
in the balance. 

In fine, these three hundred narratives can be 
accepted only as a very small instalment — as re- 
gards quality at any rate — of what is required to 
establish prevision as a working hypothesis. 

But in effect, from these three hundred narratives 
we have to begin by subtracting many in which the 
facts, if accepted, can be explained without recourse 
to any such extreme hypothesis, by adequate know- 
ledge of the present, or as the result of a lucky 
guess or of some normal but obscure chain of 
causation. 1 

In many of the narratives which remain the con- 
nection between the supposed prediction and its 
fulfilment is obscure and indefinite. Again, a large 
number of these records were written down many 
years after the event. A still larger number depend 
upon a single memory. And, finally, about two 

1 As an example of a prediction which may plausibly be explained as a 
mere chance guess, we may take the following case. It appears from the 
Morning Advertiser of the 6th March, 18S5, that a letter was sent to the 
editor of that paper on the 6th February, predicting in terms of the most 
absolute conviction the death of the then Emperor of Russia in three weeks 
from that date. This prophecy, though less startling, would have been more 
difficult to explain if it had concerned the death of some plain John Smith ; 
for though the confidence expressed by the writer is his own foreknowledge, 
and demonstrated by the unusual step of writing a letter to a newspaper, is 
certainly remarkable ; yet if we reflect that the death of a monarch is a 
matter of interest, if not of speculation, amongst millions of his contempo- 
raries, and that the foretelling of such events is part of the stock in trade of 
the professional soothsayer, we shall probably find as little difficulty in this 
case of acquitting the prophet (who gives his full name and address) of su- 



338 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAI RESEARCH. 

thirds of the whole number are dreams ; and it is 
precisely amongst the dreams that the clearest and 
best attested cases are to be found. To say that 
the best evidence for the reality of prevision is to 
be found in dreams is itself an admission of the 
weakness of the case ; for dream evidence, as has 
been already pointed out, in Chapter VIII., can 
afford but little support in a question of this kind. 
Nevertheless, the subject is of such importance, 
and the records of the Society testify to such wide- 
spread interest and, indeed, belief in the matter, 
that it seems worth while to examine the evidence 
more closely. The impressions, then, to which our 
informants testify, may be divided broadly into two 
categories, direct and symbolic. By symbolic are 
to be understood impressions which do not directly 
represent the events with which they are supposed 
to be connected. Conventional omens and dreams 
which require to be interpreted (such as those of 
Pharaoh's chief butler and chief baker) are types 

pernamral knowledge, as of complicity with the events which brought about 
the fulfilment of his prediction. 

The following case will serve to illustrate another kind of error. A lady 
writing from Surbiton to her son in Melbourne on the 23d October, dated 
her letter the 27th November. On that day she died. But a letter from 
London to Melbourne will occupy on the average — as appears from the Post- 
Office Guide — thirty-five days in transit ; thus, it is easier to suppose that in 
post-dating her letter by thirty-five days the writer was thinking of the date 
on which it might be expected to reach the recipient, than that her pen was 
guided by some higher power to predict her own death. 

For an exposition of other causes, subconscious inference of a normal 
kind, telepathy, etc., which may be supposed to account for some of the 
incidents vouched for, without recourse to the extreme hypothesis of an in- 
tuition of future events, reference should be made to Mr. Myers's article on 
Piecoo-nition. — Proc. S. P. R., vol. xi. 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 339 

of this class. Amongst direct prophecies, verbal 
predictions of future events and previsions of 
future scenes are the most frequent. 

There are certain evidential weaknesses and 
defects which are specially characteristic of each 
class, and it will be convenient to consider them 
separately, beginning with the symbolic. 

The obvious objection to the symbolic dream or 
omen is that there is no intrinsic relation between 
the event and its symbol. Our own ancestors saw 
a connection between comets and disasters ; and the 
modern Celt believes Will-o'-the-wisp lights to be- 
token death. Prima facie \ the one belief has as 
much to say for itself as the other. There is a 
natural tendency to believe that an unusual occur- 
rence — anything out of the ordinary routine of life 
— is to be construed as a portent. Hence the 
almost universal belief, at a certain stage of civilisa- 
tion, in omens. Clearly, to establish a connection 
between an unusual sight or sound and a subsequent 
event (most commonly a death) we need a long 
series of coincidences. But in the symbolic pro- 
phecies before us we have no unimpeachable record 
to attest such a series of coincidences. We are 
forced to rely upon fallible memories, for the most 
part unsupported by documents. In other words, 
we have little security that the " misses" have been 
recorded as well as the " hits." And this forgetful- 
ness of the unfulfilled omen is specially likely to 
occur with persons of the peasant or labouring class, 
who form the bulk of our witnesses for symbolic 



340 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

hallucinations ; and, again, is specially liable to 
affect dreams, the form of symbolism for which we 
have most educated testimony. Yet another defect 
of this class of evidence is that no definite term is 
fixed for the fulfilment of the omen. This, indeed, 
is a defect common to prophetic intimations in 
general, but is peculiarly noticeable in this class. 
The death may follow the corpse-lights by two or 
three days ; but the omen may fulfil itself unques- 
tioned in months or years. Again, there is the 
vagueness of the event foreshadowed. The omen 
may point to a mother or son. But some of our 
seers are contented with the death, after an interval 
of weeks, of a step-grandmother, an uncle by 
marriage, or even a mere acquaintance. 

Death Lights and Funeral Processions, 

Of symbolic hallucinations the form most widely 
and frequently attested is no doubt the death-lights. 
These lights, which are described by some corres- 
pondents as in shape like the flame of a candle, but 
larger and sometimes bluish, are supposed to be- 
token the death of a friend, and are often said to 
appear on the route subsequently taken by the 
funeral, or to hover round a spot where the coffin is 
afterwards laid. The interval between the omen 
and the fulfilment is indefinite and frequently ex- 
tends to weeks. We have received numerous 
accounts of such lights from two villages, Laugharne 
and St. Clears, on the coast of South Wales, W^e 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 34 1 

have also similar cases from Macduff and from 
Argyleshire. It will be observed that all these 
narratives come from Celtic sources. From the 
same source for the most part come accounts of 
funeral processions, which are sometimes heard as 
the trampling of many feet, or, more rarely, seen. 
In one case we are told — on the alleged authority 
of a Royal Commission — that the unhappy witness 
was trampled on and severely bruised by the phan- 
tom procession. One story of this kind, coming from 
an educated witness is perhaps worth quoting, 
though it should be noted that it depends upon a 
single memory. 

I. — From Miss H. 

■" My mother and I were once driving in Somersetshire with 
an old lady of nearly eighty years of age. She suddenly called 
to the servants to stop the carriage and draw up to the side of 
the road, which was done, though we wondered at such an un- 
accountable order. " Now you can go on," she said presently, 
and added, turning to my mother, " I always like to stop while 
a funeral passes." The road was a long, straight one, and 
quite empty of even a foot-passenger, so we laughed at the old 
lady, and told her so ; and she repeated, " Well, it is very odd, 
I certainly thought I saw one. How foolish the servants must 
have thought me." The next day occurred the perfectly sud- 
den death of her most intimate friend and nearest neighbour 
— an old gentleman who used to read to her every day." 

In answer to questions, Miss H. writes : 

" The drive took place about four o'clock in the afternoon 
on a fine bright day. We were staying at W T eston-super-Mare, 
where the old lady and gentleman lived, so I heard of his 
death myself from the old lady's daughter, the day after it 



342 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

happened. She reminded me and my mother then of the old 
lady's idea of two days before." * 

Banshees and other Symbolic Sounds. 

Another very general form of death-omen is the 
Banshee — the loud wailing said to be heard before 
a death in certain families. 2 

Sometimes the death-warning takes the form of 
knocks or loud noises heard by the relatives of the 
person to die. The best attested case of the kind 
which has come under our notice is, no doubt, the 
knockings in the Woodd family. 3 No less than 
seven instances are quoted (three of which occurred 
in the seventeenth century) in which loud knocks 
were heard by some relation or dependent before 
the occurrence of a death in the family. In the 
three most recent cases (1872, 1893, 1895) the 
occurrence of the knocks and their close coincidence 
with the death is well substantiated. But, in apprais- 
ing such coincidences, we should bear in mind that, 
when a tradition of the kind has once been started, a 
sufficient number of unexplained knocks are likely to 
be found in the course of several generations to sup- 
port it, especially if some latitude is allowed in 
reckoning the interval between the omen and its 
fulfilment. I am bound to add, however, that this 
criticism in the case of the Woodd knockings ap- 
plies rather to the older incidents — where the inter- 

1 Proc. S. P. R.,v., 303. 

2 Three such cases are given at length in Mrs. Sidgwick's article on Pre- 
monitions. Proc. S. P. R., v., pp. 306-310. 

z Proc. S. P. R., xi., pp. 538-542. 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 343 

val between omen and death varies from fourteen 
days to six months — than to the recent and better 
attested instances. If many more records of the 
kind were adduced, on equally sound testimony, w r e 
should be forced to reconsider our estimate of sym- 
bolic premonitions. 

In two narratives the death is preceded, one day 
and two days respectively, by a loud sound as of 
some one shaking a newspaper violently in the 
house. In both cases — one comes to us from Scho- 
harie, New York, and the other from England — the 
sound seems to have been inaudible to the person 
who died, who was present in the house at the time. 
In another case a lady finds an omen of her own 
death in the inexplicable ringing of the parlour bell ; 
or again, the hallucination of hearing church bells 
in an Indian jungle announces the death of a brother 
of the percipient. Two ladies testify that a short 
time before a sister's death they heard a coach 
driven past their house and back again. The 
occurrence was interpreted at the time as foreshad- 
owing a death in the family. 

Symbolic Animals. 

There are several cases of ominous animals. In 
one narrative we have a brown dog, and in another 
a black dog (both hallucinatory) preceding a death. 
In other cases the warning is conveyed by a real 
animal. The story of the Oxenham white dove is 
well known ; in another family there is the tradition 
of a mouse appearing as a herald of death. A 



344 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC A I RESEARCH. 

" strange, slim, graceful looking little bird, with a 
very tiny head, rather bluish grey," is said to have 
come for several consecutive days prior to a death, 
tapping at the window of the house and dirtying the 
glass with its feet. After the death the bird con- 
tinued its visits until the funeral, and thereafter 
came no more. The incident is vouched for by the 
daughter of a medical man. 

Again, we have one or two curious narratives in 
which the sudden appearance of an offensive para- 
site has been regarded as the forerunner of death 
or disaster. In one case a child, whom his mother 
saw in a dream so affected, died unexpectedly with- 
in a few days. 

Symbolic Dreams. 

Of symbolic dreams we have numerous records. 
In these cases also the event most often fore- 
shadowed is death. Thus Mrs. A. tells us that she 
commonly has a dream of a child in a bath before 
the death of any acquaintance. The person whose 
death is indicated generally figures in the dream. 
In two instances we have corroborative evidence of 
the dream being mentioned before the occurrence 
of the death to which it related. With another 
lady, 1 warning of death is given by a dream of 
riding a grey pony through muddy water. The late 
Rev. P. H. Newnham had symbolic dreams of vari- 
ous kinds. Death would be prefigured by a dream 
of a cavern by the sea ; sickness by a dream of a 

1 Proc. & P. R., v., p. 351. 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 345 

stormy sea. In neither series was the person con- 
cerned as a rule indicated in the dream. Another 
series of Mr. Newnham's dreams related to the 
coming of pupils. By another informant, a dream 
of teeth falling out is interpreted as relating to sub- 
sequent deaths. 

To sum up : 

Before we can assign evidential value to symbolic 
dreams and omens in general the following con- 
ditions must be fulfilled : 

(1) The dream or omen must be of a marked 
and exceptional kind. 

( 2) The event supposed to be predicted must be 
of a definite character. 

(3) There must be a definite, or, at most, a very 
short interval between the omen and its fulfilment. 

(4) The series must be sufficiently long tj es- 
tablish the probability of causal connection between 
omen and event. 

(5) There must be satisfactory evidence that 
every instance of the occurrence of the omen has 
been duly noted. 

Now in the records which have been passed under 
review, these conditions have been very imperfectly 
fulfilled. The omen has been in many cases a 
vague dream or a sound of not unusual type ; the 
event foreshadowed has generally been a death, 
but any death in a large and indefinite circle of 
acquaintance is frequently claimed as fulfilling the 
omen ; the interval before fulfilment may vary in 
the same series from hours to months ; in some 



346 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

cases the witness feels himself entitled to accept 
any unusual occurrence as a portent, and to look for 
its fulfilment in disaster ; and, finally, there is no 
case in which we have evidence that the omen or 
dream was recorded on every occasion of its occur- 
rence. The evidence, as a rule, lies in the memory 
of the percipient and his friends, ranging over a 
long interval of years, and unsupported for the 
most part by any documentary evidence. 

So far then from adding to the evidence for pre- 
vision, the narratives hitherto considered seem to 
me to some extent to weaken the force of the evi- 
dence which follows. 

Fetches, or Premonitory Apparitions. 

Intermediate between the symbolic cases with 
which we have just been dealing and direct pre- 
visions are the " fetches," or apparitions of per- 
sons seen shortly before their deaths. The belief 
in such premonitory apparitions seems to be very 
general, and we have several cases in our collec- 
tion. Thus the Rev. J. H. writes that in i860 
the nurse one evening saw an apparition of his 
little girl walk into the day nursery. The child 
died suddenly a few days later. Mrs. M. records 
that she saw an apparition of her sister come into 
her bedroom and speak to her at 5 a.m. one morn- 
ing. The sister died at the same hour a week 
later. 1 Mrs. C, writing in 1888, states that fifteen 
years previously, when being undressed, she saw 

1 Proc. S. P. R..xl, p. 442. 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS, 347 

her maid's double about two feet off. A week later, 
at about the same hour, the maid died. 1 In another 
case Mrs. Alger, walking from Victoria to West- 
minster, one day in March, felt herself touched on 
the shoulder, and turning round saw the apparition 
of her husband's mother. Later that evening, when 
discussing the incident with Mr. Alger, she heard 
a voice say, " Come both of you on the 22nd." On 
the 22nd of March Mr. Alger's mother died. 

Auditory Cases. 

In the last case, it will be noticed, the lesson of 
the apparition is interpreted and enforced by the 
voice subsequently heard. There are several cases 
of predictions made by an audible or quasi-audible 
voice. Dr. Beddoe, F.R.S., records that a patient 
of his, Captain B., after the funeral of a lad whom 
he knew, saw a vision of the boy, who spoke to the 
Captain and predicted his death within a week. 
The Captain, Dr. Beddoe records, actually died on 
the appointed day. 2 

We have another well-attested case of a verbal 
prediction, recorded by Miss X. A note of the 
date predicted in this case was sent to Mr. Myers 
beforehand, but from the lack of particulars we are 
not in a position to estimate the exact value of the 
coincidence. 3 

1 Proc. S. P. R., xi., p. 448. 

2 Journal,S. P. R. for May, 1890, p. 256. A similar case, also reported 
by the doctor who was cognisant of the prediction beforehand, is given in 
Proc. S. P. R., xi., p. 581. 

8 Proc. S. P. R. , xi. , p. 536. 



348 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

There are also a few cases of sounds heard antici- 
pating real sounds in the same locality. 

Visions. 

There are not many visual cases, other than the 
fetches already described, which rest on good evi- 
dence. The most striking example is given to us 
by Dr. Wiltse, of Skiddy, Kansas. 1 Dr. Wiltse, 
lying awake one evening, saw a succession of 
tableaux appear before his eyes on the wall. The 
tableaux presented a landscape — unknown to him, 
but recognised from his description by a friend who 
was present during the vision, and to whom Dr. 
Wiltse described each scene as it appeared— a log 
hut, a man wounded, and finally a corpse. The 
tragedy actually occurred as seen in the vision some 
months later. The witness who was present cor- 
roborates Dr. Wiltse's account ; and the experience, 
if accurately remembered, was undoubtedly very 
striking. Unfortunately, however, the vision does 
not appear to have been recorded until twelve or 
fourteen years after the events. 

We have a few cases of prophetic crystal visions. 2 

Predictions at Seances. - 

Lastly there come a few cases of predictions at 
seances. The following case was communicated to 
me by a lady of my acquaintance, whose accuracy 
in ordinary matters may be relied on. She was in- 

1 Proc. S. P. P., xl, p. 573. 

2 See for instance Proc. S. P. P., v., p. 298, and xi., p. 503. 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 349 

troduced some years since by William Lloyd Gar- 
rison to a clairvoyante medium in Boston, U. S. A. 

II.— From Mrs. P. 

"Though I had only arrived in Boston the day before, her 
guides instantly recognised that I came over the water, and 
opened up, not only my past life, but a great deal of the future. 
They said I had a picture of my family with me, and on pro- 
ducing it, the medium told me (in trance) that two of my chil- 
dren were in the spirit world, and, pointing to one son in the 
group, she said : " You will soon have this one there ; he will 
die suddenly, — but you must not weep for him ; he will be 
taken from the evil to come. It is not often permitted to tell 
these things, but we see it is best for you, that you may know 
it is no accident." 

I had not been home many weeks, before my son, a brave 
boy of seventeen, was killed at a game of football." l 

I was shown a copy of the photograph in ques- 
tion, a group of several children. 

Dr Liebeault 2 records another case, in which he 
was a witness before the event of a prediction by a 
professional medium. A patient of his in 1879, 
when nineteen years old, consulted a u Parisian 
necromancer," and was told he would die at twenty- 
six. He told Dr. Liebeault of the prediction in 
January, 1886, and did in fact die (from peritonitis) 
in September of the same year. In this case, in 
view of the nature of the illness, it is difficult to 
suppose that the prediction could have brought 
about its own fulfilment. 3 Yet another case of a 

1 Proc. S. P. R., v., p. 311. 

2 Proc. S. P. R., xi., p. 528. 

3 Another case of the prediction of a death at a seance is given in the 
5". P. R. Journal for June. 1891, p. 87. 



350 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

prediction of death may be referred to here. The 
Rev. A. Glardon wrote to Professor Sidgwick, on 
September 14, 1893, that his aunt, Miss J. V., had 
on the 4th of August preceding predicted her own 
death within six weeks. A few hours later on the 
same day he wrote again to announce the death, 
which thus took place a day before the completion 
of the six weeks. 

In the course of this brief review of the evidence 
for prevision derivable from waking impressions of 
various kinds, I have touched only upon what ap- 
pear to be the most striking and best attested nar- 
ratives. There are no doubt among them a few 
records which merit consideration ; and if, taken as 
a whole, they are found to fall below the level of 
the best telepathic cases of the same kind, this in- 
feriority is due, less to any shortcomings on the 
part of our informants, than to the inconclusive 
nature of the coincidences, and especially to the 
want of a definite time relation between omen and 
fulfilment. 

Dreams. 

We now pass to the most numerous class of pre- 
monitory impressions. The best attested cases so 
far adduced have fallen short of conviction because 
of their vagueness, or their failure to demonstrate 
a real connection between the thing foreshadowed 
and the thing as it occurred. There is no lack of 
definiteness in the dream stories. No reasonable 
person could question the conclusion that — if the 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 35 I 

narratives now under consideration can be accepted 
as they stand — coming events do in some sort cast 
their shadows before. Dreams are indeed numer- 
ous enough, but dreams of the type here reported, of 
clear outline, and full of minutely remembered de- 
tails, are by no means common. The resemblances 
reported between dream and event are too numer- 
ous and too complex to be explained away by mere 
chance-coincidence. Nor, indeed, do I think that 
coincidence unadorned plays any considerable part 
in the matter. The fact that the great majority of 
our contributors have experienced more than one 
premonition is against such an explanation. 1 In 
other words, the phenomena are not isolated. — as 
would be the case if they were the work of pure 
chance coincidence, — but they appear generally in 
small groups within one individual experience. This 
characteristic we should expect to find equally if the 
experiences reported are proofs of some transcend- 
ental faculty, or of some common human weakness of 
memory or narration. Before accepting them as 
the former, it will be well to see if there are any indi- 
cations of such merely human errors. Even in the 
absence of such indications — in face of the demon- 
strated belief in prophetic omens the remark can 

1 Out of sixty first-hand narratives which I have examined, and which may 
be taken as a fair sample of the whole, I find that in no less than forty-three 
cases — more than seventy-one per cent — the percipients state that they have 
had other supernormal experiences — i. e., dreams or impressions of other 
kinds believed to have some relation with external events, mostly premoni- 
tory, but occasionally simultaneous (telepathic). The question does not 
seem to have been asked in all cases, otherwise the proportion of affirmative 
answers would probably have been still higher. 



352 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC A I RESEARCH. 

hardly seem superfluous — it is less improbable that 
these narratives are due to such familiar agencies, 
than that they testify to a power which would so 
violently interrupt the empirical order of the world. 
And be it remembered that we are here concerned 
almost exclusively with testimony based upon 
memory. The cases which are supported by con- 
temporary documentary evidence are few and far 
from conclusive. 1 

Now, memories of dreams are essentially untrust- 
worthy. The experiences themselves are mostly 
lacking in impressiveness and colour, and readily 
fade from the memory. Moreover, we have no 
means of correcting our memory of these elusive 

1 I can find six cases \_Proc. S. P. R. y ix., p. 437, Mr. Chase : id. p. 431, 
Glardon : p. 528, Liebeault : p. 432, Suddick : p. 536, Miss X. : pp. 4S9-91, 
Colonel Coghill] in which there is evidence that a note of the prediction. 
was actually written before its fulfilment. Three of these cases relate to the 
death of the percipient ; and the terms of the prediction were not very pre- 
cise. The fourth case also related to a death In this instance the letter 
written beforehand merely mentions the fact of the prediction without giving 
particulars. [It is doubtful whether these intimations of death should have 
been included, since they can possibly be explained, as Mr. Myers has 
suggested, without having recourse to prophecy at all. For the same reason 
I have omitted a few cases, p. 169 (vol. xi., 455), p. 211 (p. 467), p. 212 (p. 
474), and p. 245 (p. 477), attested by previous documentary evidence, in 
which it is doubtful if the impressions received involved an element of 
prophecy strictly so-called. See Mr. Myers's remarks on these cases.] In 
the fifth case the note consisted simply of a date, the event to which the 
date referred not being described. The sixth case — a dream, by a- lady 
given to dreaming, of an accident in the hunting field to a friend given to 
hunting — is the most impressive. But here unfortunately the letter written 
before the event cannot now be found, though there is good evidence that 
it existed. The precise amount of coincidence cannot therefore be deters 
mined. There are a few other cases in which we have an account written 
so immediately after the event that it may be considered unlikely that seri- 
ous errors of memory have crept in. 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 353 

impressions by reference to our ordinary standards 
and landmarks. We can neither compare them 
with other simultaneous impressions nor determine 
their position in the series of impressions which 
make up our waking lives. The world of dreams is 
timeless and without dimensions. Hence it follows 
that those subtle processes of unconscious embel- 
lishment — the reading back of details, the pruning 
of redundant and irrelevant matter, the magnifying 
of real points of resemblance — which vitiate more 
or less all memories of what purport to be tele- 
pathic or premonitory experiences, corrupt most 
readily dream-memories. When, for instance, a 
lady reports that thirty-five years since, as a girl, 
she constantly had allegorical visions ; and that 
towards the end of 1847 sne na d a prevision of the 
revolution in Paris of the following year ; or when 
another writer prefaces her account of a vision (in 
this instance a crystal vision) with the remark " it 
is nearly eighteen years ago, and I have almost for- 
gotten it," we can feel little assurance that the 
narrative faithfully mirrors a real experience. But 
these purported to be waking impressions, and our 
reliance on the memory of a dream must be even 
less. In many cases the relation depends upon a 
single memory, the witnesses being dead or disin- 
clined to corroborate. More rarely proof is forth- 
coming that the coincidence has been exaggerated. 
The witness, when appealed to, has either entirely 
forgotten the remarkable occurrence and its fulfil- 
ment ; or he differs from the original narrator in 



354 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

his version of the circumstance ; or he remembers 
too much l or too little. 2 It will generally be found, 
as in the two cases last cited, that when the two 
accounts differ, the exuberant detail is supplied by 
the less educated witness. But the liability to error 
of this kind is, no doubt, generally admitted ; and 
few educated persons would wish to take an un- 
corroborated account of a dream or vision as evi- 
dence for anything. It is, however, less generally 
recognised that the same kinds of error which affect 
the original percipient may affect, though not ne- 
cessarily to a like degree, the corroborating witness. 
From the nature of the case it is very difficult to 
obtain distinct proof of this. But we have come 
across two clear examples. In one case a colonial 
judge gave us an account of an apparition seen by 
him coincidentally with the death of an acquaint- 
ance. The account was corroborated by his wife. 3 
In another case a lady and her daughter told us of 
a " ghost " seen by the latter in a foreign hotel. 4 In 
both cases it was found that the witnesses were 
mistaken. In the first case the vision, if it occurred 
at all, certainly did not occur at the time or in the 
circumstances alleged. In the second case the re- 
port was founded on a vision seen by a third per- 
son. It will be noticed that in both these cases the 
imaginary experience was a waking hallucination, 
an experience much less likely than a dream to be 

1 P. 129, Proc. S. P. R., xi., p. 513. 

2 P. 368, id., p. 517. 

3 Journal, S. P. R., vol. ii., p. 2. 

4 Apparitions and Thought-Transference, p. 153. 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 355 

unconsciously feigned. Such a perversion of testi- 
mony will no doubt most commonly occur among 
members of the same family, living in the same 
household, and immersed in the same environment. 
It is in such circumstances that the insidious sugr- 
gestion of an oft-repeated tale will find its most 
favourable field of operation. Few husbands, it 
may be supposed, are capable of taking a really 
intelligent interest in the dreams told by their 
wives in the morning hours. But if the wife re- 
peats her story often enough, and with adequate 
conviction, it is possible that, out of the dim float- 
ing consciousness of many forgotten incidents of 
the kind, there may piece itself together a pseudo- 
recollection of having heard a particular dream told 
before its fulfilment. 

From this point of view it is noteworthy that in 
a large proportion of these narratives the only cor- 
roboration comes from a near relative, or at least a 
member of the same household. No doubt this 
would be liable to occur in any event, since it is to 
those nearest that the dream would commonly be 
told ; but the circumstance, nevertheless, increases 
the chances of error. 1 

But under the most favourable circumstances a 

x Out of the fifty first-hand cases [these cases were not dreams exclusively, 
"but included premonitory impressions of all kinds] which I have examined 
with this view, I find that in twenty-six the only corroboration is supplied by 
husband, wife, parent, child, brother, or sister ; in two cases a daughter-in- 
law corroborates ; in five, a member of the same household — governess or 
servant. Thus in seventeen cases only out of the fifty is there corrobora- 
tion from an independent source, a friend or acquaintance not living in the 
same house. 



356 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

suggestion of this kind probably requires a certain 
time to operate, so that this particular fallacy would 
be less likely to vitiate recent cases. 

Pseudo-presentiments. 

After an examination of the evidence for tele- 
pathy, premonitions, and kindred matter collected 
by the American Society for Psychical Research, 
Professor Royce, of Harvard, U. S. A., in 1889 
propounded a theory 1 which, in his view, explains 
away a large number of the narratives cited as 
proofs of telepathy and premonition. It is " that 
in certain people under certain exciting circum- 
stances there occur what I shall henceforth call 
pseudo-presentiments — i. e., more or less instantane- 
ous and irresistible hallucinations of memory, which 
make it seem to one that something which now ex- 
cites or astonishes him has been prefigured in a 
recent dream or in the form of some other warn- 
ing." Elsewhere he compares these pseudo-presen- 
timents to " momentary spasms of the activity of 
apperception." In Professor Royce's view, appar- 
ently, these pseudo-presentiments are to be distin- 
guished from the familiar illusion of double memory, 
in which one seems to have been in a place or wit- 
nessed a scene before, mainly as being more im- 
pressive and more lasting. Of positive evidence 
he has but little to offer for his views. He quotes, 
indeed, a couple of asylum cases, in which the pa- 
tients imagined that many of the events which 

1 Proc. Am. S. P. R., pp. 366 et seq., and Mind, April, 1888. 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 357 

happened had been predicted to them beforehand. 
But these cases are not quite parallel to those which 
form the bulk of our evidence, where the narrator 
has the impression of having seen things before- 
hand. Of all the narratives which he cites as in- 
stances of pseudo-presentiment, there is but one to 
which his hypothesis can be said accurately to ap- 
ply ; but one, that is, in which we have indisputable 
evidence that the narrator immediately after the 
event had a vivid impression (whether well-founded 
or not) of having witnessed the scene beforehand. 
This one case is as follows : 

III. — Extract from a letter of Mrs. C's, dated Sept. 25, 
1874: 

" I was called away to dinner, and had to leave off abruptly; 
now my thoughts are scattered. At dinner my brother told 
me that a man in his store set upon him to-day and beat him 
on the head with a stick. W. took the matter up, and a war- 
rant was taken out ; but listen — at breakfast this morning we 
were all laughing at my dream of last night, which was, that I 
saw a man hitting L. (the brother) on the head with a stick. 
L. has a bruise on the exact place I dreamt he had. What do 
you make of this coincidence ? The boys beg me not to 
dream of them." 1 

Mrs. C, writing in 1887, gives a fuller account 
of the dream and of the incident which it purports 
to have foreshadowed. Mrs. C's sister, also writing 
in 1887, confirms the incident, and states that she 
heard the dream at breakfast, as stated. If we 
leave out of sight the corroboration which, as it 

1 Proc. Am. S.P. R., p. 475. 



358 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

depends on a memory thirteen years old, may be 
conceded to have slight evidential value, we still 
have to suppose that Mrs. C, a few hours after the 
event, was seized with a hallucination of memory, 
which made her imagine, not only that she had had 
a dream the night before, but that she had told the 
dream at the breakfast-table, and had listened to 
the comments of various members of her family* 
That seems to me an extravagant assumption. 1 

In short, I can find no cases either in the collec- 
tion of the American S. P. R., or elsewhere, to 
which the hypothesis of an instantaneous and irre- 
sistible hallucination of memory seems applicable. 2 
Many of the narratives no doubt strongly suggest 
a mnemonic fallacy of some kind or other. But I 
hardly think that we are justified in adopting such 
an extreme assumption. In the first place, it will 
generally suffice, as Dr Hodgson 3 has pointed out, 
to assume an illusion rather than an hallucination. 
Amongst the vague dream-memories that throng 

1 Professor Royce does indeed cite two other cases, which he classes as 
pseudo-presentiments, in which we have documentary evidence, in the one 
case a few hours, in the other a week, after the event, attesting the occur- 
rence of the dream. But the first case is communicated, not by the dreamer, 
but by the person to whom the dream was told before the event. [Proc. 
Am. S. P. R., p. 417, case 31.] In the other case \Ibid.. p. 375, case 11] 
Professor Royce himself is of opinion that the dream really occurred, but 
was misplaced in time. In both of these cases, it is clear, we have to sup- 
pose a memory hallucination of a quite different type from the " pseudo- 
presentiment" above defined. 

2 There are, of course, a few cases in our collection in which we have 
documentary evidence immediately after the event testifying to the prior oc- 
currence of the impression. But in most of these cases the facts are attested 
by a second witness. 

3 Proc. Am. S. P. R., p. 540 et seq. 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 359 

the shadowy places of consciousness there must 
often be found one to fit the occasion. In the 
second place, since, with the few exceptions above 
referred to, these accounts have been committed to 
writing only months or years after the events, we 
are unable to say that the illusion or hallucination 
was of instantaneous origin. In the long interval 
an illusion once started would have leisure to ma- 
ture and opportunity to impress itself on other per- 
sons in the company of the percipient, without any 
such violent process as Professor Royce suggests, 
Sometimes, no doubt, the fallacy will consist, not in 
the deepening and embellishment of an indefinite 
memory, but in the transposition in time of a genu- 
ine and well-remembered dream — a transposition 
which is facilitated, as already pointed out, by the 
difficulty of establishing the time-relation between 
dreams and other events. 

There are many cases which prima facie may be 
grouped under the category of pseudo-presenti- 
ments, if we may retain the term while enlarging 
its connotation. Thus, to quote a typical case, one 
correspondent writes : 

IV. — When a lad of about nineteen, I was returning 
through a secluded lane, from a day's trout fishing, when it 
suddenly flashed upon my mind that I should sprain my ankle 
badly before reaching home. The next day was, I think, 
Easter Sunday, and I pictured myself resting my sprained 
limb on a chair on the lawn whilst the rest of the family were 
at church. The next stile I reached (about half-a-mile further 
on), I climbed with the greatest care, but fell on the other side, 
with a badly-sprained ankle ! 



360 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

The account in this case is not less than fifteen 
years old, and is here, apparently, put in writing 
for the first time. It is clearly easier to suppose a 
slowly-maturing memory illusion, leading to the 
transposition of a dream or other impression oc- 
curring after the accident, than to invoke the dens 
ex machina of an instantaneous hallucination at the 
time of the accident. 

There are a few narratives in which the fallacious 
character of the " memory " is strongly suggested. 
Thus a lady writes us that, about a fortnight pre- 
viously, on a Tuesday night, she had a vivid dream 
of reading some painful news in a letter, which im- 
pressed her and made her miserable all the next 
day. On the following Saturday her dream was 
fulfilled ; she was told the painful news in the very 
words of her dream. On the Monday she knocked 
her foot against an iron bedstead, which had figured 
in her dream, and only then remembered her dream 
and its fulfilment. In another case, 1 a lady tells us 
that she was being driven to her sister's house at 
Roehampton. The horse was restive, and the 
groom twice got down to see if anything was 
wrong, and returned to the carriage. When he 
got down the third time the lady remembered she 
had had a vision the previous night of the carriage 
being overturned on that very road, and got out of 
the carriage to walk ; a few minutes later the car- 
riage was upset. These two cases probably ap- 
proach more nearly to the type of Professor Royce's 

1 Proc. S. P. R., v., p. 313. 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 36 1 

pseudo-presentiments than any others in our col- 
lection. 1 

It remains now to print a few samples of the best 
attested narratives, that the reader may be in a 
position to judge how far the various sources of 
error briefly referred to above can account for the 
coincidences reported. 

To begin with, we have several cases reported at 
first-hand of dreams in which " an outsider " was cor- 
rectly indicated as the winner of a race. But, as 
Mrs. Sidgwick points out, 2 dreams of this kind 
probably occur pretty frequently to persons inter- 
ested in racing matters, and the scope for coinci- 
dence is therefore very large. Again, Professor 
Hulin, of the University of Ghent, cites 3 several 
cases in which persons correctly predicted before- 
hand the numbers which they would draw in a 
military conscription. But here again, dreams on 
a subject of this kind are probably too numerous 
for an occasional coincidence to be at all noteworthy. 
The following case, however, which is concerned 
with an analogous subject, is more remarkable : 

V. — From Miss K. D. Ellis, Cranborne Vicarage, Windsor. 

" August 21, 1884. 
" I have lately been very anxious about the success of a 
young friend who had been examined for a Sandhurst cadet- 
ship. The list of successful candidates was due on the 15th 

1 Another interesting case of a fulfilled dream which probably depends, 
as Mrs. Sidgwick points out, on a memory illusion, is given at length in Proc. 
S. P. P., v., pp. 316, 317. 

2 Proc. S. P. P., v., p. 342. 

3 Proc. S. P. P., xi., p. 545. 



362 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

August. About ten days before that date I dreamed that I saw 
the list, and that a boy of the same name as my friend (John- 
son) was two places from the bottom. I mentioned this to my 
sisters in the morning. About three days after I dreamed 
exactly the same thing, with the addition that I noticed that the 
initials of the Christian names were not those of my friend. I 
did not see clearly what they were, but only that they were 
wrong. I mentioned this second dream to my family, saying 
that I now believed our friend would pass, although it was con- 
sidered very unlikely that he should do so. When the Sand- 
hurst list appeared in the Times of August 15th we looked first 
at the bottom of the list, and there, second from the end, was the 
name of Johnson, but it was that of a stranger, as I had dreamed. 
Our friend (of the same name, but other initials) was 71st on 
the same list. 

" Katharine Diana Ellis." 

A newspaper extract was sent with the narrative, 
showing the list of successful candidates for cadet- 
ships. The name of Hugh W. B. Johnson is 71st, 
and that of Rupert M. R. Johnson 98th, the num- 
ber on the list being 100. 

In answer to the question, Was this dream 
marked by exceptional vividness, or was it unusual 
in any way ? Miss Ellis states that it was unusually 
vivid, and repeated twice. She also informs us 
that she has had other seemingly veridical dreams. 1 

There are several cases of dreams of accidents in 
mines and quarries. But these, again, are open to 
a similar objection ; that accidents probably enter 
frequently into the dreams of persons who have to 
do with mines. 

1 Proc. S. P. R., v., pp. 342-3. The percipient's two sisters have written 
to corroborate this account. Both believe that they heard the account of the 
two dreams before the publication of the list. 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 363 

A well attested case, already referred to, of the 
dream of a hunting accident, which was fulfilled 
four days later, will be found in Proc. S. P. P., xi.. 
p. 489. 

Of dreams of death, the following is one of the 
most remarkable : 

VI. — From Mr. James Cox, Admiralty House, Queenstown, 
Ireland (Secretary Ret. to the Admiral Commanding in Ire- 
land). 

" December 18, 1883. 

" On Sunday, nth September, 1881, while proceeding in 
H. M. S. Phoenix, from Newfoundland to Halifax, Nova- 
Scotia, I dreamt that one of my brother officers was lying 
dead in a house at Portsmouth. The dream was so vivid that 
it quite disturbed my mind the following morning, and it was 
with difficulty that I could shake off the uncomfortable feel- 
ing. At breakfast I sat opposite the officer, and looking round 
the table, I remarked : ' I dreamt last night that I saw one of 
you fellows lying dead, but I won't say which, as I don't want 
to spoil your appetite.' In the course of the afternoon, as we 
were steaming into Halifax harbour, the officer was sitting at the 
stove in the wardroom joining in an animated conversation 
about the speed of the ship, &c. A few minutes after we 
anchored, I went on shore, and returned again on board at 
10 p.m., and as I was about to go below to my cabin, the officer 
of the watch motioned me to be silent, and approaching me, 
said, ' Poor S. is dead ; he has just died suddenly ' ; and as I 
passed across the mess-room I beheld the officer of my dream 
lying dead in his cabin. 

" I am certain that two or three officers who were with me 
in that ship will remember the circumstances." 

In answer to inquiries, Mr Cox adds : 

" I never before or since had any similar vivid dream of 
death. The case of the chief engineer of the Phoenix was so 



364 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

vivid and distressed me so much that I am not likely ever to 
forget it." 

Mr. M. Hawkins, one of Mr. Cox's brother offic- 
ers, writes from H. M. S. Superb in January, 1884, 
to Mr. Cox : 

" My dear Cox, — I think I can fully corroborate the story 
that you ask me about, as it made a great impression on my 
mind at the time, which has never left it. In fact, I have fre- 
quently spoken of it to persons who have been speaking of 
similar affairs, and now I will tell it as nearly as I can. On 
the morning of the 12th September, 1881, you told me that 
you had dreamed the night before that you saw Mr. Sharp 
lying dead in the back room of a printer's shop in Commercial 
Road, Landport (as far as I recollect it was Trivers'), whither 
you had been called by some one for the purpose. You said 
that he had fallen down dead very suddenly, and that when 
you told the captain of the circumstances, he requested you to 
make all necessary arrangements with regard to the funeral, 
&c. You then, in your dream, found yourself in an under- 
taker's shop, with some one else, engaged in superintending 
the funeral matters and selecting things, &c; and then, as far 
as I recollect, your dream ended." ' 

But the most striking and well attested dreams 
in the S. P. R. collection relate to quite trivial in- 
cidents. Such incidents of course offer greater 
scope for coincidence than a dream, such as that 
last cited, which relates to a unique event. It is 
essential, therefore, in such cases, that the record 
should be made before the details have faded from 
the memory. On the other hand the triviality of 
the incident makes it perhaps less probable that the 

1 Proc, S. P. R., v., pp. 330-1. 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 365 

dream experience is the result of a pseudo-presenti- 
ment. The following case, from friends of my 
own, is a good example of the class : 

VII.— From the Rev. Walter Smith : 

" Harpenden, St. Alban's, March 7, 1883. 

" I write to tell you of a thing that has just happened, and 
which may interest you. It is at least a curious coincidence. 
I think it was about a month ago that my wife woke up in a 
fright and told me that she had been dreaming that she was in 
her old room at the rectory, and that the clothes-basket was 
mysteriously on fire. I perfectly remember the circumstances 
of the dream as she told them to me, and we laughed at it, as 
the thing seemed so wildly improbable. 

" However, this morning, not long after the nursery fire was 
lighted, the baby's clothes-basket was found in flames, and 
was burnt to cinders, the floor and walls of the room being 
also a good deal burnt. The basket was so far away from the 
fire, and it was so obvious that the fire had proceeded from it, 
that the origin of the fire was at first almost as mysterious as 
in the dream, and the thought of spontaneous combustion 
passed through my mind. I have little doubt now that it 
really arose through some fragments of burning paper being 
blown out from the grate and against the basket. 

" It is a curious case of a dream partially prophetic. You 
may easily set it down to mere coincidence, but if many cases 
like it were multiplied, one would ask whether it is possible 
that dreams can grow out of a reminiscence of the future as 
well as of the past. It was a commonplace dream enough, 
and just such a one as in future times might grow out of the 
events of this morning, and the strong shock which they gave 
her nerves ; but it was a curious dream to arise quite spon- 
taneously. 

"Walter Smith." 

Mrs. Smith's account of the dream is as follows : 



366 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

" About the end of January this year I had a very vivid 
dream. I thought that I was in my room in my old home. I 
saw all the furniture most vividly just as it used to be. Sud- 
denly and mysteriously I saw flames burst up from the clothes- 
basket, which was standing, as usual, in a corner quite away 
from the fireplace. I thought that two or three other people 
were in the room, and that they tried to put out the flames, 
but I was so frightened that I woke up before they had done 
so. I think that I woke my husband in my fright, but I can- 
not be sure whether I told him the dream then or in the morn- 
ing. I remember we laughed at the improbability of the 
thing, and of course thought no more of it." 1 

This case will serve to illustrate one of the funda- 
mental defects of the evidence for prevision. If 
this dream had occurred to Mrs. Smith at the 
time of the accident we should, no doubt, have 
ranked it as a fairly good instance of a telepathic 
dream. To the casual reader, no doubt, occurring 
as it did some six weeks before the event, it may 
seem almost equally valuable as evidence for pro- 
phetic intimations. But if placed in the balance its 
weight as evidence will be found to be only a small 
fraction of the simultaneous dream. For in circum- 
stantial evidence of this kind each additional coin- 
cidence is not merely added to the sum of the other 
coincidences, but multiplies them. The value of 
the whole case is represented, not as a + b + c 
+ x, but as a x b x c x ^, where x represents 
the time-coincidence. And x, it is clear, has in the 
one case a far greater value than it has in the other. 

In dealing with experiences such as waking hal- 

1 Proc. S. P. R.,\., pp. 344-5- 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 367 

lucinations, which are themselves unusual and im- 
pressive, this consideration is of less importance, 
and the value of x is less as compared with the 
other factors. But in experiences so common and 
unimpressive as are most dreams, the value of the 
time-coincidence is relatively greater ; and we have 
seen that even with the help of the time-coincid- 
ence telepathic dreams form but a subordinate 
part of the evidence. 

In the next case the coincidence appears to have 
been more exact, but the record, it will be seen, was 
made some months after the event. 

VIII. — From Mrs. Mackenzie, Lamington House, Tain, 

Ross-shire. 

"July 14, 1884. 

" One morning last spring, when at breakfast, I suddenly 
remembered a dream I had had the night before, and told it 
to my house party, who numbered ten individuals. I should 
say that it was rather a joke against me that I believed in 
dreams, and that very often my dreams came true ; so when I 
mentioned having had a curious dream, I was greeted with 
the usual joking remarks. ' Well,' said I, ' this is what I 
dreamt. I thought there were several people in our drawing- 
room, among others Mr. J., and I left the room for a few 
minutes to see if supper was ready, and when I came back to 
the drawing-room I found the carpet, which was a new one, 
all covered with black spots. I was very angry, and when 
Mr. J. said it was ink stains, I retorted, " Don't say so, I 
know it has been burnt, and I counted five patches." ' So 
ends the dream. Well, we all went to church, it being Sun- 
day, and on our return Mr. J. came with us to luncheon, a 
thing he had never done before, and some others joined our 
party. I went into the dining-room to see if things were 
ready, and then going back into the drawing-room I noticed a 



368 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

spot near the door and asked who had been in with dirty feet ; 
being a new carpet I was particular. Mr. J., as in my dream, 
said it was surely ink, and then pointed out some more spots, 
when I called out, ' Oh ! my dream ! my new carpet ! burnt ! ' 
As we afterwards discovered, the housemaid had allowed the 
fire to go out, and had carried in live coals from another room 
in a shovel, which she had tilted against the door and spilt 
the coals on the' carpet, burning five holes. Of course next 
Sunday I had several offers from my party to remain at home 
and watch the other carpets, but I don't think that housemaid 
will burn any more carpets. 

"J. W. Mackenzie." 

Miss Mackenzie writes : 

" I certify the above to be correct. — 

" Gertrude Agnes Mackenzie." 

Miss Mackenzie, her mother states, was present 
when the dream was told, and also when the 
denouement occurred. 

In the cases which follow,, the interval between 
event and record was still longer. 

IX.— From Miss L. O. : 

"August 31, 1884. 

" About a year ago, as nearly as I can remember, I had a 
remarkably vivid dream — that I went to Richmond Park 
(from London) with my sisters, and that upon a seat I found a 
brooch, which I gave to the maid. I mentioned this dream to 
the maid as she was doing my hair next morning, also to one 
of my sisters. I did not at the time of the dream know that 
we were going to Richmond on the following afternoon. 

" However, we did so, and as I was walking towards a bench 
with one of my sisters, we saw upon it a large common black 
brooch. My sister claimed it, as being the elder, but in a few 
days she gave it to me, and I gave it to the maid. 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 369 

" I may add that I dream a great deal, and sometimes pro- 
phetically. For instance I dreamed one night last week that 
I received a letter from one of my cousins. In the morning 
I told my sister, who went down stairs and found on the table 
this particular letter, which I had no especial reason for ex- 
pecting on that morning." 

From Miss Nora O. : 

11 This is to certify that I remember that my sister Louisa 
told me on the morning after the dream, and before its fulfil- 
ment, she dreamed that she had found a brooch in Richmond 
Park." 

The next case was communicated by Miss B. and 
written down by me from her dictation in the 
summer of 1884 : 

X. — " Some time in 1868, when in Poonah, I dreamed 
that I was in the Government Gardens, which are ordinarily 
very deserted, and found them crowded with tables laid out 
near the band-stand, at which children were seated at tea. I 
was serving at one of these tables, when I heard a voice be- 
hind me saying, 'May I be allowed to help you, Miss B. ?' 
I turned round and saw a perfect stranger, an officer, in a uni- 
form which was also strange to me. In my dream I accepted 
his help, and later on was escorted by him through the 
grounds, which then appeared to be brilliantly lighted and very 
crowded, in search of my father and mother. ... I told 
my dream in the morning, and also described the man and his 
uniform to my father and mother, and also to a cousin, who 
happened to be staying with us. About a month after this, on 
the eve of the Abyssinian campaign, the cavalry regiment then 
quartered in Poonah was replaced by a Madras regiment, and 
riding out with my cousin a few days after the change we met 
an officer, in a uniform which I recognised, even at a distance, 
as that of my dream, and pointed him out to my cousin on his 
nearing us. I also recognised his face as that of the officer of 



370 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

my dream, and in the evening of the same day pointed him out 
to my father near the Ghowpoorie band-stand. Perhaps as 
much as three weeks after this a fete was given in the Govern- 
ment Gardens, when tables were laid for a tea to be given to 
the soldiers' children, and I was requested by a friend to help 
her at one of the tables. Whilst so engaged, I heard a voice 
behind me saying, ' Will you allow me to help you, Miss B. ? ' 
and on turning round I recognised the man whom I had seen 
in my dream. I was afterwards obliged to accept his escort 
in searching for my father and mother through the gardens, 
brilliantly lighted by fireworks ... I have absolutely no 
interest in the hero of my dream, though we knew him toler- 
ably well afterwards. The acquaintance has not continued." 

This is attested by Miss B's mother. 

On the occasion of a second visit to Miss B., on 
June 13, 1888, she explained to me that she had 
never before heard of festivities in the Government 
Gardens, and had no idea of the approach of the 
fete. She searched for her diary at my instigation 
and found it, locked. It was opened with a key 
of my own and the following passage discovered. 

Extract from Miss B.'s diary, copied by me : 

" September 25, [1868 apparently] Children's fete at the 
Government Gardens. I assisted at Mrs. K's tea-table. I had 
a curious dream some time back about a gentleman I did not 
know. I met him at the fete. He is . . ." 

In the last case, it will be noted, an entry in the 
diary attests the occurrence of the dream ; but for 
the details we have to rely entirely upon the narrat- 
or's memory. The incident, it will be observed, 
is recorded sixteen years afterwards. Miss B., it 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 37 1 

should be added, has had several other prophetic 
and coincident dreams of the same general character 
relating to trivial incidents. 1 

Of one of the cases above quoted Mrs. Sidgwick 
writes 2 : 

" I told the story to a lady a little while ago, who remarked, 
i But then the question is, of what use was it ? ' meaning that 
if it was of no use it cannot have been a premonition. Now, 
this consideration seems to me irrelevant. I do not deny that 
the coincidence I have just related may have been purely ac- 
cidental, with nothing supernormal about it at all, but the fact 
that it was of no use does not make it more probable that it 
was so. For we have no sufficient reason to suppose that pre- 
monitions, if they exist, are a species of petty private miracles, 
intended to help us in conducting our affairs — temporal or 
spiritual. We must regard them as peculiar manifestations of 
unknown or imperfectly known laws." 

And, indeed, two curious characteristics of our 
evidence, as represented by recent and well attested 
first-hand narratives, may be noted here. On the 
one hand the cases which point to a supernormal 
prevision, as distinguished from an extraordinary 
but rational prescience, of the future, are almost 
without exception useless — unless, indeed, the rac- 
ing dreams which give the " correct tip " may be 
held to constitute an exception. On the other hand, 
the type of prophecy which most appeals to the 
imagination, the classical prophecy which consists 
in the foreshadowing of great events, is almost en- 

1 A few other well attested dreams of this type will be found in Proc. S. 
P.R., xi., pp. 487-493- 

2 Proc. S. P. R.,v., p. 344. 



372. STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

tirely unrepresented. There are, indeed, traditional 
and remote cases of the kind, There are, for instance, 
the celebrated predictions of La Harpe shortly be- 
fore the French Revolution of the fate to come on 
many distinguished personages. There is Mr. 
Williams's dream of the assassination of Mr. Perci- 
val in the lobby of the House of Commons in 
1812. There are a good many traditional family 
prophecies. Amongst more recent cases we have 
a second- or third-hand account of a dream — the 
dreamer being a prominent member of the Society 
of Friends at Bristol — foreshadowing the Bristol 
riots of 1 83 1. We have a first-hand uncorroborated 
account, already referred to, of a vision of the 
French Revolution of 1848 ; and there is a case — 
this time resting on two independent memories 
— in which a soldier in the American Civil War is 
said to have foretold his own death and some of 
the movements of the troops. But the incident 
happened in 1863, and the accounts are dated 

1893. 1 

Now it may fairly be held that the absence of 
cases of these two types is in itself a strong proof 
of the good faith and general accuracy of our in- 
formants. This is not to say that the imagination 
has had no part in shaping even the best attested 
and most recent narratives. But at any rate its 
activity — an activity for the most part wholly sub- 
conscious — appears to have been restrained within 
comparatively narrow limits. Most of the recent 

1 Proc. S. P. R. y x\., p. 582. 



PREMONITIONS AND PREVISIONS. 373 

cases have probably a substantial basis in fact. 
More than this it would not be safe to assert. For 
though we are not in a position to say of any single 
narrative that the details have been exaggerated, 
we have evidence that, taken as a whole, such is 
the case. It will be found that, broadly speaking, 
— for the material is too scanty to support a very 
exact comparison, and the effect of time is liable to 
be obscured by individual differences of mental 
habit — the greater the interval between impres- 
sion and record, the more striking and detailed is 
the coincidence. I have already referred to the 
narratives for which we have contemporary, or 
practically contemporary, evidence. The coinci- 
dences attested in these cases are, as shown above, 
by no means of a convincing character. But as we 
go further back the correspondences between dream 
and event tend to grow ever more exact and more 
impressive. There is a case in our collection l in 
which a gentleman relates how he dreamt one 
morning, and told his wife before breakfast, the 
whole series of the coming day's events. The ac- 
count is so detailed that it occupies three entire 
pages of small print. But the incident occurred 
" about twenty years " before the narrative was 
written. 

Taken at its face value, the narrative last referred 
to would, of itself, seem sufficient to constitute proof 
of the possibility of prevision. But if it is admitted 
that all evidence in such matters which depends at 

1 Quoted in Proc. S. P. R.,v., p. 348. 



374 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

all on mere memory is subject to a large and at 
present indefinable discount, it seems to me that 
the instances of what purport to be prevision so far 
collected fall short of redeeming their pledge. Un- 
til we meet with records of prophetic visions which 
are at least on the same evidential level as the nar- 
ratives quoted in Chapter VIII., and as much more 
numerous and more impressive than those narra- 
tives, as the faculty which they purport to demon- 
strate is more remote than telepathy from mundane 
analogies, we can but regard these dream-stories 
which we have been considering as the sports of 
chance or the distorted mirage of our own hopes 
and fears. Questioning Leuconoe must still ques- 
tion in vain. It does not yet appear that there are 
Babylonish numbers or wizard's spells, vision by 
day or dream by night, which can reveal to her or 
us the hidden things of fate. 



CHAPTER XII. 

SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 

OF late years attention has been strongly di- 
rected to certain mental states in which ac- 
tions, such as ordinarily imply the accompaniment 
of will and intelligence, are performed without leav- 
ing any trace on the normal consciousness. Such 
unconscious or sub-conscious cerebral activities play 
a large part in Psychical Research. Some of the 
most striking and characteristic manifestations of 
what we have called telepathy testify to these sub- 
terranean activities. The phenomena of clairvoy- 
ance and spirit impersonation are connected with 
mental states divided by a more or less definite line 
from the normal waking life. The study of hypno- 
tism, indeed, is little else than the investigation of 
the workings of a secondary state of consciousness. 
It is important, then, for the right appreciation of 
our evidence in general, and indispensable as re- 
gards the matters to be considered in the succeed- 
ing chapter, to have some knowledge of the facts 
roughly brought together under the heading of 
Secondary Consciousness. 

So far, observers have for the most part concen- 
trated their attention on one set of the phenomena 

375 



376 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

to be explained, and the explanations put forward 
have been proportionately one-sided and inadequate. 
Thus to some the facts appear to be exclusively the 
result of the automatic functioning of brain-centres 
below the level of consciousness. But if the sec- 
ondary states of Felida X. and Mme. B. are un- 
conscious, we have no justification for ascribing 
consciousness to any human activities except our 
own. Others see in the phenomena only indica- 
tions of a morbid dissociation of consciousness. 
This view has more to say for itself than the first ; 
but in accepting it we should have to recognise a 
pathologic element not merely in the hypnotic 
trance, but in the nightly dreams of ordinary life. 1 
As regards the psychical theories, the interpretation 
placed upon some of the phenomena by the spirit- 
ualists will be most conveniently discussed in the 
next chapter. There remains, as the only gener- 
alisation which is professedly founded on a com- 
prehensive survey of all the facts at issue, the 
hypothesis put forward by Mr. Myers in his papers 
on the Subliminal Consciousness, and supported to 
some extent by Dr. Max Dessoir. The following 
passage 2 contains a concise statement of the theory 
as held by Dr. Dessoir : 

" In the course of ordinary life certain actions occur which 

1 As Professor Janet indeed is willing to do. See E Automatisme Psycho- 
logique, p. 137. " Un individu parfaitement sain . . . mais aucun 
homme n'est aussi parfait : mille circonstances, l'etat de passion, Pe'tat de 
sommeil, l'ivresse ou la maladie diminuent ou detruisent," etc. 

3 Quoted by Mr. Myers in a review of Das Doppel Ich, Proc. S. P. R., 
vi., p. 207. 



SE C 'Oj \ 'DA A' J ' CO A 'SCIO USNE SS. 377 

pre-suppose for their origination all the faculties of the human 
spirit, but which nevertheless work themselves out without the 
knowledge of the agent. These actions we term automatic. 
Among them are certain automatic movements, as the act of 
dressing one's self, or of retracing a well-known path ; and 
some other automatic performances, such as counting one's 
steps, or adding up columns of figures. These latter acts 
plainly indicate the existence of a separate train of memory 
employed upon them. And moreover, although they take 
place without the agent's knowledge, they cannot take place 
without his consciousness ,• they cannot be truly unconscious 
acts. They must in some fashion belong to a .^-conscious- 
ness which, in its relation to the far more potent upper con- 
sciousness, may best be understood if we consider it as a 
secondary consciousness. And if we regard Consciousness and 
Memory as the essential constituents of an Ego, we may 
boldly say that every man conceals within himself the germs 
of a second personality." 

Mr. Myers's doctrine is of wider scope. 

" I suggest, then, that the stream of consciousness in which 
we habitually live is not the only consciousness in connection 
with our organism. I accord no primacy to my ordinary wak- 
ing self except that, among many potential selves, this one has 
shown itself the fittest to meet the needs of common life." 
There is in each of us an abiding psychical entity far more 
extensive than he knows, — an individuality which can never 
express itself completely through any corporeal manifestation. 
All this unexpressed psychical action is conscious, all is in- 
cluded in an actual or potential memory below the threshold 
of habitual consciousness. This subliminal consciousness may 
embrace a far wider range both of physiological and of psychi- 
cal activity than is open to the supraliminal consciousness. 
The spectrum of consciousness in the subliminal self stretches 
indefinitely in either direction, extending on the one side to 
physiological processes which have long dropped out of human 



378 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

knowledge, on the other to certain supernormal faculties (tele- 
pathy, clairvoyance, prevision), of which only stray hints have 
reached us in our present stage of evolution. Conformably 
with this view, a stream of consciousness flows on within us, 
at a level beneath the threshold of ordinary waking life ; sleep 
is no longer to be conceived as the mere abeyance of waking 
activities, but as a phase of personality with characteristics 
definitely its own ; crystal vision, the hypnotic trance and 
allied states, open a door into this hidden life ; and the im- 
provisations of genius are manifestations of subliminal activity 
intruding upon the primary consciousness." 1 

It need hardly be said that this theory, being 
purely psychological, is not necessarily opposed to, 
or even inconsistent with, the physical theories by 
which various observers have essayed to explain 
the facts ; just as the doctrine, of which indeed it 
forms one aspect, that there is a soul in man tran- 
scending his material organism, is not held to be in- 
compatible with the discoveries of physiology that 
the activities of that organism are, in general, con- 
ditioned by changes in the nerve-centres originated 
by external stimuli. The theory, however, of a 
subliminal consciousness is founded not solely on 
transcendental considerations, but, like the various 
physiological theories, on a study of patent and ad- 
mitted facts, and is so far just as amenable as they 
to criticism on physiological grounds. 

These facts may be roughly divided into two 
classes, spontaneous and induced ; the former be- 
ing subdivided into normal and pathologic. This 
classification is indeed more or less arbitrary, since 

1 Proc. S. P. R., vii., p. 301, etc. 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 379 

it is impossible, on the one hand, to distinguish 
precisely between phenomena which are sponta- 
neous and those which are induced, and on the 
other, to draw a definite line between the normal 
and the pathologic ; and it may be very far from 
expressing the real relation between the facts. In 
our present ignorance we are scarcely justified in 
assuming that any one physiological explanation is 
sufficient to cover the whole of the heterogeneous 
phenomena here grouped together. But it will 
serve for practical convenience, especially if we 
group the facts in the following order, — normal, 
induced, pathologic, — and thus begin by studying 
the phenomena which appear in ordinary life, and 
so proceed by progressive stages until we reach 
those admittedly morbid mutilations of conscious- 
ness which are most remote from common expe- 
rience. 

Secondary Consciousness in the Normal State, 

The first indications of the splitting up of the 
stream of consciousness are to be found, on the one 
hand, in those activities for which Dr. Carpenter 
proposed the term " unconscious cerebration," and 
on the other in dreams. 

Our waking consciousness at any given moment 
consists in a heterogeneous mass of impressions of 
every degree of intensity. Take, for instance, the 
case of a man walking about and talking with a 
friend in some crowded place. His consciousness 
will include many distinct groups of ideas ; he will 



380 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

be " thinking " primarily of the particular aspect of 
the subject under discussion, but there will enter as 
elements into his consciousness ideas of its other 
aspects and of cognate subjects. He will also be 
conscious of his interlocutors appearance, voice, 
etc. ; he will be conscious, more dimly, of the ap- 
pearance of his surroundings and of the other per- 
sons near him ; there will probably be present to 
him also some twilight knowledge of scraps of con- 
versation overheard ; and, lastly, there will be an 
obscure but adequate conception of his own move- 
ments in walking and speaking, and of his tactile, 
muscular, and organic sensations generally. 

In the language of physiology, consciousness re- 
flects the simultaneous, co-ordinate activities of an 
immense number of nerve-centres, but reflects them 
very imperfectly, much as — to employ Ribot's illus- 
tration — a map represents the main features of a 
country-side. 

But when, as in sleep, the pressure on the limits 
of consciousness is relieved by the inactivity of 
some of the higher cerebral centres, the " critical 
point" of consciousness is lowered, various new 
elements rise above the threshold, and elements 
hitherto subordinate acquire greater prominence. 
Of the throng of images present to the mind during 
sleep, the most part are so evanescent as to fade 
from the memory shortly after waking. The com- 
mon run of dreams, no doubt, are comparable in 
intensity to the feebler reverberations which accom- 
pany the main movement of our waking thoughts, 



SECOND A R J " COX SCI USNESS. 3 8 I 

and assume temporary importance only because 
they do not come into competition with more vivid 
impressions. Thus sensations of organic processes 
are frequently predominant during sleep, just as the 
clank and clash of shunting trains, the gross ma- 
chinery which underlies our social life, forms an 
unregarded element in the complex mass of sound 
which fills our ears in the daylight hours, but at- 
tains to solitary distinctness in the quiet of the 
night. Ordinarily, then, there are no indications in 
our dream-life of a continuous separate stream of 
consciousness. If we forget our dreams in the day 
we are not entitled to assume that they are treas- 
ured up in a hidden memory elsewhere ; the forget- 
fulness, we may conjecture, is due partly to the 
feebleness of the original impression, partly to its 
isolation. It would seem, indeed, that the cere- 
bral register is appropriated to the more firmly 
welded impressions of our daylight hours, and that 
a dream not recalled at once and so brought into 
association with our waking ideas has little chance 
of permanent record there. 

Now it frequently happens that dreams do not 
merely reflect the sensations of the moment, but in- 
clude also subordinate elements of a recently past 
state of consciousness, or even more remote images, 
which rise into prominence after their original ap- 
pearance has been forgotten. Thus, to quote a 
few familiar illustrations, forgotten incidents of our 
youth frequently recur in dreams, and there are 
many cases on record of dreams in which the where- 



382 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

abouts of a missing article has been seen, indicating 
the resurgence of an impression which at the time 
did not penetrate into full consciousness. Some- 
times the forgotten impression is revived not in 
dreams but in some analogous state. Lapsed 
memories frequently come to the surface in the de- 
lirium of fever. Miss X.'s crystal visions will bring 
before her pictures of scenes which had demon- 
strably passed before her eyes and been forgotten. 
In one oft-quoted instance the crystal pictured to 
her the obituary notice of a friend, which had ap- 
peared in the Times the day before, where her eyes 
had casually encountered it without realising its im- 
port. Planchette-writing, as Dr. Carpenter showed, 
frequently refers to incidents, or quotes lines of 
poetry, which had passed from the memory of the 
operator. 

Sometimes the dream-activity is of a more com- 
plex kind. Such no doubt, was the dream in which 
Coleridge composed Kubla Khan, — the long poem 
of which only a melodious fragment remains to us. 
Professor Lamberton, of the University of Penn- 
sylvania, records that after having vainly wrestled 
for some days with a geometrical problem, one 
morning immediately on waking he saw the solution 
diagrammatically given on the wall in front of his 
eyes. 1 Dr. Hilprecht, Professor of Assyrian in the 
same University, in the winter of 1882-3 received 
in a dream an explanation, then novel, but now gen- 

1 Proc. S. P. R., xii., p. n. See the parallel cases quoted in Carpenter's 
Mental Physiology, pp. 536-7. 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS, 383 

erally accepted, of the meaning of the name Nebu- 
chadnezzar. In March, 1893, he had an even more 
remarkable dream. He had been puzzling over 
two fragments of agate from the temple of Bel, at 
Nippur, the inscriptions on which he was unable to 
decipher. On going to sleep he dreamt that a tall, 
thin priest led him to the treasure chamber of the 
temple on its south-east side, into a room where 
stood a large wooden chest, while scraps of agate 
and lapis lazuli littered the floor. The priest then 
addressed him as follows : 

" The two fragments which you have published separately 
upon pages 22 and 26, belong together, are not finger rings, 
and their history is as follows : King Kurigalzu (ca. 1300 b.c.) 
once sent to the temple of Bel, among other articles of agate 
and lapis lazuli, an inscribed votive cylinder of agate. Then 
we priests suddenly received the command to make for the 
statue of the god Ninib a pair of earrings of agate. We were 
in great dismay, since there was no agate as raw material at 
hand. In order to execute the command there was nothing 
for us to do but cut the votive cylinder into three parts, thus 
making three rings, each of which contained a portion of the 
original inscription. The first two rings served as earrings for 
the statue of the god ; the two fragments which have given 
you so much trouble are portions of them. If you will put the 
two together you will have confirmation of my words. But the 
third ring you have not yet found in the course of your exca- 
vations, and you never will find it." 

On the following morning Dr. Hilprecht put the 
two fragments together, and deciphered the inscrip- 
tion — " To the God Ninib, son of Bel, his lord, has 
Kurigalzu, Pontifex of Bel, presented this." Later, 
he found that two years previously he had been 



384 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

told of the position of the treasure chamber, and of 
the discovery of a room with fragments of a wooden 
chest, and lapis lazuli, etc., littering the floor. 1 

In all these three cases we have evidence of a 
more or less complicated process of ratiocination 
having taken place, the results of which alone per- 
sisted into the waking consciousness. Analogous 
results are sometimes obtained through planchette. 
A striking case is quoted in the next chapter, in 
which the narrator held a long conversation with 
himself through planchette, and through planchette 
propounded anagrams and conundrums, which his 
conscious self had some difficulty in solving. A 
lady of my acquaintance was in the habit, in spon- 
taneous somnambulism, of writing letters, and per- 
forming other acts indicating intelligence. 

So far these experiences would seem to indicate 
that there is a cerebral storehouse in which certain 
impressions, which have lapsed from, or possibly 
failed to penetrate to, full consciousness, may be 
treasured up ; but there is nothing to justify the 
assumption of a " secondary consciousness " — that 
is, a continuous psychical memory. The recovery 
of lost memories in dreams and allied states can be 
adequately explained on the assumption of a physi- 
cal stimulus of the nerve tracts in which the mem- 
ory is stored, — a mere cerebral reverberation. Even 
the fairly complex processes indicated in the cases 
last quoted may be conceived as the results of a 
mechanical functioning of the brain, of which the 

1 Proc. S. P. R., xii., p. 15. 



SE CON DA £ Y CON SCI USNE SS. 385 

final stages alone were irradiated by consciousness. 
At any rate, in all these cases Dr. Carpenter's term 
" unconscious cerebration " does not seem con- 
spicuously inapplicable. The same may be said of 
the various manifestations of our waking life, which 
Mr. Myers has brought together under the heading 
" The Mechanism of Genius," — such as the inspira- 
tion of oratory and poetry, the improvisations of 
musical composers, and the wonderful powers of 
calculation recorded to have been possessed by 
certain persons, mostly young boys. 

Again, in view of the extreme complexity of a 
state of consciousness at any given moment, and 
the innumerable and heterogeneous elements which 
it includes, of the lightning-like elusiveness of many 
of the processes of thought, and the rapidity with 
which they fade from the memory, it seems to me, 
that in considering such results as those given 
in Professor Hilprecht's dream, or the problems 
worked out by the calculating boys, or the inspired 
work of a poet, we have no justification for saying 
that the processes by which those results were ob- 
tained were represented in a secondary conscious- 
ness, merely because the memory of them has not 
persisted in waking life. It may be suggested that 
one of two other interpretations, — or possibly a 
combination of these two — would be more in ac- 
cordance with known analogies ; namely, that the 
processes were conscious but evanescent, or that 
they were automatic and unconscious. 

But indeed the question whether or not we may 



386 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

postulate in such instances any psychical concomit- 
ant of the cerebral processes seems to be a ques- 
tion of scant significance in this inquiry. We know 
little of the limits of consciousness, and nothing 
whatever of its physical equivalents, or whether, 
indeed, it enters at all into the chain of physical 
causation. It is a waste of words, then, to ask 
whether or not consciousness is present in such 
cases, when, apart from the fact that the very con- 
ditions of the problem preclude a definite answer, 
there is no evidence that its presence or absence 
would affect the result. But it is of real import- 
ance to note that these examples drawn from nor- 
mal life are apparently disconnected and sporadic. 
We can find nothing here to justify the assumption 
of a separate consciousness, or a systematised cere- 
bral activity working independently of the normal 
mechanism, such as alone could merit the title of a 
second personality. At most, these isolated mani- 
festations could be held to indicate that a few 
nebulous fragments are occasionally thrown off 
from the central cosmos, not that they ever coalesce 
into a stable system apart. Except in the distinctly 
pathologic cases, to which we shall revert presently, 
it is only in various artificially induced trances that 
we can find a memory and intelligence so stable 
and systematised as to deserve the name of a sec- 
ondary consciousness, and even in such cases the 
secondary " personality " only attains its full devel- 
opment gradually, and in exceptional cases, and 
bears many of the marks of a manufactured article. 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 387 

Induced Secondary Consciousness. 

It is a well known fact that many hypnotic sub- 
jects retain in waking life no recollection of what 
they have done and suffered in the hypnotic trance ; 
but that when again hypnotised they can recall all 
that passed in the previous trance, and will more- 
over, almost invariably, be cognisant of their wak- 
ing life as well. To put it briefly, the hypnotic 
memory in such cases includes the normal memory, 
as the larger of two concentric circles includes the 
smaller. The rule is indeed by no means a uni- 
versal one, and in many cases this division between 
the normal and the hypnotic memory appears to be 
a matter of slow growth. In the early stages of 
hypnotism it frequently happens that, whilst the 
power of voluntary motion may be abolished by 
suggestion, consciousness will remain apparently 
unimpaired ; and even in a somewhat later stage, 
when the hypnotic becomes liable to hallucinations, 
a dream-like memory will in some cases persist into 
the waking state. But with each succeeding trance, 
the trance-consciousness differentiates itself more 
and more, until the obliviousness in the normal 
state of all that has happened in the trance may 
become complete. Now the trance-consciousness 
thus established is in most persons of a very rudi- 
mentary kind. It resembles closely the dream- 
consciousness ; and for the most part has little 
spontaneity. The subject will, indeed, answer di- 
rect questions and respond to suggestions, even to 
the extent of acting out, with some originality, any 



388 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

part, from a windmill to the Queen of Sheba, which 
may be assigned to him. But he will rarely vary 
his performance, except at the direct suggestion of 
the hypnotist ; or initiate any thought or action of 
his own accord. The trance, in fact, if left undis- 
turbed tends to pass over into ordinary sleep. The 
state may indeed differ as widely from ordinary 
sleep as from normal life. In the hypnotic trance 
the subject frequently obtains a control over his 
own muscular, respiratory and vascular system, and 
his bodily functions generally, which is denied tO' 
his waking hours. The establishment of complete 
anaesthesia and analgesia, local or general, is a com- 
monplace of hypnotism. So, too, are the effects of 
suggestion in this state in checking morbid pro- 
cesses or re-establishing healthful activities. In 
some extreme hypnotic cases, as in some hysterical 
subjects, we have it on the evidence of various 
French observers that suggestion will even produce 
artificial sores, mimic stigmata, and other profound 
pathological modifications of the organism. But 
all these processes, it need hardly be said, are so 
far as we know unaccompanied by consciousness of 
even the most rudimentary kind. The psychical 
modifications which may be observed in this state 
are, however, hardly less interesting, such as hyper- 
amnesia, increased power of mimicry and impersona- 
tion, an extraordinary faculty of visualisation and 
so on. But these enlargements of psychical activity 
appear to co-exist only with the original dream-like 
state of consciousness. They tend to disappear as 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 389 

the hypnotic is trained to exercise his reasoning 
faculties in the trance. How far this process of 
education may be carried is best seen in the classical 
example of Madame B. 1 

Madame B., commonly known as Leonie, is a peasant 
woman, who has been a natural somnambulist from her child- 
hood. From the time when she was sixteen years old — she is 
now over fifty, — she has been frequently hypnotised by all 
sorts of persons. For the last few years, however, she has 
been under the constant observation of M. Pierre Janet, Pro- 
fessor of Philosophy at Havre. In her normal state Leonie is 
an ordinary peasant woman, serious, a trifle heavy, placid and 
retiring. In this state she is also extremely gentle and docile. 
When hypnotised, she wakes up to another existence ; she 
now calls herself Leontine ; her whole aspect changes ; she 
becomes extremely bright and lively, and not seldom recal- 
citrant to suggestions ; she also develops considerable powers 
of humour and sarcasm. She discusses her visitors freely, 
and makes fun behind their backs of their little foibles and 
vanities. Of her waking self she says, " This good woman is 
not me, — she is much too stupid." When shown a photograph 
of her ordinary self in outdoor costume she has been heard to 
exclaim, " Why has that woman taken my bonnet ? " Leonie 
the first is a Roman Catholic ; Leonie the second is a con- 
firmed Protestant— she has adopted the religious views of her 
first hypnotiser. In a word, Leonie the first is an ordinary 
French peasant ; Leonie the second is a woman of the world, 

1 Madame B., indeed, is not quite a normal subject, and it may be argued 
that it is her hysterical diathesis which has rendered it possible to educate 
her secondary consciousness to the point which it has now reached. But 
the case is quoted here because it is difficult to find another instance where 
the effects of repeated and prolonged hypnotisation on the subject's mental 
state have been reported by competent observers. In any case, if we grant 
Madame B.'s abnormality, the fact that her secondary consciousness when 
developed tends to revert to the same type as the primary, is an argument 
a fortiori for the views advanced in the text. 



390 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

able to hold her own in polite society, and with a circle of 
acquaintances and a varied experience of which Leonie the 
first has no knowledge whatever. 

But there is a third state of this woman, with a third memory, 
a memory which includes the other two, but is not shared by 
them. In this third state Madame B. — Leonie the third — is 
lethargic and passive, the face pale and still, the limbs motion- 
less ; she speaks in a very low voice, and only when directly 
addressed. If in the third state she is told to perform some 
trivial act, she will carry it out in the second state, whilst laugh- 
ing and talking with those around her ; and in this second 
state she does not know that she is doing anything else but 
laughing and talking. Thus Leonie the third has been told to 
take up an album and place it on a particular spot. She is 
then brought back to the state of lucid somnambulism, as it is 
called, and, as Leonie the second, she talks with those around 
her. Whilst so engaged, she moves the album as enjoined. 
But when asked what she has just been doing, she looks sur- 
prised and says " Nothing." Brought back into the lethargic 
state Leonie the third gives a full account of the moving of 
the album, and adds, " The other one was talking whilst I got 
up from my seat ; she is so stupid that she knows nothing 
about it." Leonie the third has, indeed, a pretty poor opinion 
of both her predecessors ; of Leonie the first, her waking self, 
she says, " She is a good woman, though stupid ; but she 
isn't me." Of Leonie the second, her somnambulic self, she 
asks, " How can you think me like that silly woman ? I have 
nothing to do with her." 1 

It will be seen from this account that the char- 
acteristics which distinguish Leonie II. from Leonie 
I. are not due to any hidden stream of consciousness 
tapped by the trance ; they are just the character- 
istics which the difference of external circumstances 
and the suggestions of the experimenter are suffi- 
cient to account for. It seems clear that here the 

1 L'Automatisme Psychologique, pp. 128 et seq. 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 39 1 

hypnotist has created the consciousness which his 
processes reveal. 

There seems to be no limit, indeed, to the num- 
ber of artificial states of consciousness which the 
hypnotist may create. How transitory and unreal 
such " selves " are, however, is well seen in some 
experiments of Edmund Gurney's. He has shown 
that in many hypnotic subjects two distinct stages 
can be demonstrated in the hypnotic trance, each 
with a memory peculiar to itself and mutually ex- 
clusive. In some subjects, indeed, he succeeded in 
evoking three such stages, the memory in each being 
distinct and exclusive, so that the subject in state A 
would carry on an animated conversation on any 
imaginary incident suggested to him by Mr. Gur- 
ney ; when thrown into state B he would have com- 
pletely forgotten the subject of his talk in state A, 
but would talk on a fresh subject similarly sug- 
gested, which would in turn be forgotten on his 
being placed in state C. He could be led back- 
wards and forwards through these three states sev- 
eral times in the course of an evening, and would 
converse in each state freely on the ideas peculiar 
to that state, or on any other which might be sug- 
gested to him. It was observed, however, with Mr. 
Gurney's subjects that these artificially induced 
memories tended ultimately to merge into the 
primary hypnotic consciousness. After a few days 
the imaginary incidents suggested in each of the 
three states would be recalled all together indis- 
criminately. 1 

1 Stages of Hypnotic Memory \ Proc. S. P. P., iv., p. 515, et seq. 



392 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Analogous to the hypnotic trance is the self-in- 
duced trance of the spiritualist medium. Here, also, 
the entranced subject frequently educates himself to 
such an extent that the dream-like consciousness 
entirely disappears, and he will address public 
audiences with considerable fluency in his secondary 
state, and be a more active citizen of the world 
than in what are historically his " waking" hours. 

There are other considerations which indicate 
that the secondary consciousness of the hypnotic 
trance — when it is not merely a dream-state charac- 
terised by the absence of certain familiar elements 
and the greater relative prominence of others — is 
not the revelation of a pre-existing psychical state, 
but a consciousness created de novo. It rarely has 
any distinctive content other than that supplied by 
the suggestions of the hypnotiser, or the other ex- 
periences of the trance. Conversely, when the 
hypnotic trance does reveal the existence of subter- 
ranean memories, we generally find that they are 
of a distinctly pathologic kind. Thus, a spontane- 
ous somnambulist of my acquaintance was in the 
habit of secreting valuable objects in her trance. 
On one occasion she hid in this way two £\o notes. 
After a prolonged and fruitless search she was hyp- 
notised and then revealed the hiding-place. But in 
this instance the secondary consciousness — even 
then of a very crude kind — which was tapped in the 
trance had been organised in a long succession, ex- 
tending through many years, of spontaneous attacks 
of somnambulism. Again, in the case of Ansel 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 393 

Bourne, referred to below, the hypnotic trance 
brought to the surface the memory of the previous 
abnormal state of secondary consciousness, and 
that only. In other cases of spontaneous secondary 
consciousness the same thing has been observed. 1 

No doubt when the secondary consciousness in 
hypnosis has once been firmly established it may 
incorporate with itself various elements which oc- 
cupy but a subordinate place in the primary con- 
sciousness, or have escaped from it altogether, just 
as we see is the case in dreams. The oft-quoted 
experiment of Herr Dessoir may be explained in 
this way. He records 2 that he was talking with 
some friend about a common acquaintance, X. 

W who was present, but reading, caught the 

name, and asked, " What was that about X?" 
Questioned, he said he had not heard the conver- 
sation. Herr Dessoir then hypnotised W., and he 
was able to repeat all that had been said. Again, 
memories of childhood occasionally emerge in hyp- 
notism ; there is an instance recorded of a subject 
in the trance speaking Welsh, a language which he 
had learnt in childhood and forgotten. 3 But after 
all, we do not need the supposition of a stream 
of subterranean consciousness for these sporadic 
cases ; the physiological assumption of a cerebral 
register, in which irrelevant records may be occa- 
sionally brought to light by some disturbance of the 

1 See the case quoted in the British Medical Journal, May 17, 1890. 

2 " Das Doppel Ich" quoted by Mr. Myers, Proc. S. P. P., vol. vi., 
p. 208. 

3 Moll. " Hypnotism " (English Translation), p. 126. 



394 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

accustomed paths of association, involves a smaller 
draft upon the unknown. 

The relations of the hypnotic to the ordinary 
consciousness are of a very interesting kind. One 
of the most familiar illustrations of these relations 
is in the performance of post-hypnotic promises. 
Reference has already been made to the subject in 
the case of Madame B., but the instance there cited 
was of a command, impressed in a deeper, being 
fulfilled in a lighter stage of the hypnotic trance 
itself. Generally speaking a fairly docile hypnotic, 
if asked in the trance to perform after waking any 
act, however grotesque or trivial, will faithfully 
execute the command. Mr. Gurney, amongst 
others, has carefully investigated the conditions 
under which such enjoined actions are carried into 
effect. He has shown that, whilst the subject 
may be in the normal state and fully conscious at 
the time he executes the command (though not 
conscious of his motive in so doing) and may sub- 
sequently retain the memory of the action, it fre- 
quently happens that during the performance of 
the action the subject relapses into a state closely 
resembling, if not actually identical with, the ordi- 
nary hypnotic trance — a state in which anaesthesia 
may be observed, and hallucinations imposed. It 
can be demonstrated, further, that in the interval 
between the waking from the trance and the fulfil- 
ment of the command — an interval which may ex- 
tend for minutes or for months — there is not merely 
a record in the subconscious memory of the act to 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 395 

be performed, but some kind of intelligence which 
watches for the given signal, or counts the time 
until the appointed date. For instance, a subject 
would be told to blow out a particular candle after 
Mr. Gurney had coughed six times. After being 
awakened from the trance he would retain no con- 
scious recollection of the command, and would be, 
as judged by the usual tests, in a perfectly normal 
condition. At the sixth cough, however, he would 
rise and blow out the candle. Now if questioned, 
say after the fourth cough, when in the normal con- 
dition, he would profess himself unable to say how 
many times Mr. Gurney had coughed. But when 
put back into the hypnotic trance, or questioned by 
means of planchette, he would reply correctly. 
Again, if told to do something at the expiration of 
one hundred and twenty-three days, he would, if re- 
hypnotised in the interval, correctly state the number 
of days which had already passed and the number 
which were still to elapse before the appointed time, 
though in his waking state he knew nothing what- 
ever about the matter. It would seem, then, as if 
in all these cases there was a thin but continuous 
stream of cerebral activity cut off from the main 
channel, which was capable not merely of registering 
a command, but of receiving external impressions 
and recording the lapse of time. 1 

Sometimes the task exacted of the secondary 
consciousness was one requiring the exercise of 
greater intelligence. Thus, to quote Mr. Gurney : 

^ee Dr. Milne Bramwell's experiments, Proc. S. P. A\, vol. xii., pp f 
176-203. 



396 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

" P. was told (in the trance) to add together i and 2, 2 and 
3, etc., up to 8 and 9 ; and also to write down anything start- 
ling that happened in the room. He was awakened, set to the 
planchette, and read a newspaper aloud. Soon after his hand 
began to write, I knocked the poker down in the fender. The 
writing was : 
"5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, the Poker Fell down in Fender.' " 1 

In other cases the primary intelligence was set to 
work out a sum, the answer being given byword of 
mouth, while another problem of the same kind was 
set to the secondary intelligence, the answer being 
written through planchette. Or the attention of 
the primary consciousness would be fully engaged 
by a suggested hallucination, whilst the secondary 
intelligence would do a sum, or write out a line or 
two of poetry, or perform some other task requiring 
the exercise of the mental faculties. In all these 
cases when re-hypnotised the subject would be able 
to recall and generally to correct where necessary 
what his hand had written through the planchette ; 
and in most cases the memory of the hallucination 
suggested, or of the task imposed upon the primary 
consciousness also penetrated into the secondary 
state. This division of the intelligence into two 
distinct and simultaneously active channels was pos- 
sible, however, only within narrow limits. It was 
difficult to find an occupation for the primary in- 
telligence which, whilst affording evidence of mental 
activity, should yet not be sufficiently engrossing to 
absorb all the available store of attention. It was 

1 Proc. S. P. P., vol. iv., p. 316. 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 397 

found, in fact, as a rule, either that both tasks were 
performed imperfectly, or that one task failed of 
fulfilment altogether. Thus, when two sums were 
given simultaneously, one or both were incorrect. 
The writing through planchette was generally mis- 
spelt and faulty ; and sometimes, when the task 
assigned to the primary self was such as to demand 
a large output of energy, the other task remained 
unfulfilled, as in the following case : 

" S 1 was told to multiply 697 by 8, was instantly awak- 
ened, and in another moment was given a book to read aloud. 
The passage was the chapter about Humpty - Dumpty in 
Through the Looking- Glass, of which he read several pages 
with great spirit and enjoyment. But the planchette on which 
his hand was lying remained motionless. He was re-hypno- 
tised, and S. said, * Why did you not do that sum ? ' 

" S 1. ' You didn't give me time to. I lost it all at 

once — could make nothing of it afterwards.' 

" S. ' What else have you been doing ? ' 

" S 1. ' What else ? ' 

" S. ' Yes— what else ? ' 

" S 1. ' I don't know — leave that in your hands.' 

" S. ' Have you been reading ? ' 

"S 1. 'No.' 

" S. ' Nothing about Humpty-Dumpty ? ' 

" S 1. ' Humpty who ? ' 

" S. ' Humpty-Dumpty.' 

" S 1. ' I read about him when I was a kid.' 

" S. ' Hasn't Mr. Gurney been holding a book for you to 
read ? ' 

"S 1. 'No.' 

" S. ' What have you been doing ? ' 

" S 1. ' Been sleepy or something.' " l 

l Proc. S. P. P., vol. iv., pp. 318-9. 



398 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Here the thread of the secondary memory ap- 
pears to have been broken, and we find, as in Ansel 
Bourne's case given below, two entirely distinct 
states of consciousness, each without memory of 
the other. 

It is clear from these examples that the simul- 
taneous functioning of two separate streams of con- 
sciousness, if possible at all, occurs within very 
narrow limits ; that there is not enough attention 
" to go round " ; and that the guides of our child- 
hood were after all justified in their warning that 
we could not do two things at the same time. It is 
not quite clear, indeed, from Mr. Gurney's experi- 
ments how far such a thing as simultaneous double 
consciousness occurs at all. Many of the results 
which he records seem susceptible of explanation 
as due either to rapid alternations of consciousness, 
or even, as he himself suggests, to unconscious 
reflex action in one state or the other. 1 It would, 
no doubt, be putting a rather severe strain upon 
this explanation to apply it to the post-hypnotic 
remembering of signals or days, and to post-hyp- 
notic planchette writing. But if we admit a subter- 
ranean consciousness in such cases, the importance 
of the admission lies in the fact of its existence, 
and not in its quality as demonstrated. It does, 
indeed, perform its allotted task with a rough ap- 
proximation to accuracy, but it displays no spon- 
taneity and little intelligence. It seems to be but 

] Mr. A. H. Pierce (Proc. S. P. R., xi., pp. 317-325) adopts this view, and 
explains planchette writing under such conditions as the result of purely 
reflex action. 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 399 

a thin thread of dream-consciousness created ad 
hoc. 

Secondary Consciousness in Pathologic Cases, 

It is, however, in certain pathologic cases, in 
association with functional disturbances more or 
less profound, that we find the most striking illus- 
trations of secondary consciousness. The follow- 
ing case, communicated by Mr. Algernon Joy, 1 gives 
an interesting example of a secondary memory, 
appearing apparently in connection with the altered 
state of the cerebral circulation consequent upon a 
blow on the head, and disappearing when the physi- 
cal cause was momentarily removed. 

" When I was about sixteen, and a cadet at Woolwich, I was 
thrown in wrestling with another cadet, and received a violent 
blow just above the left temple from a knob of an iron bed- 
stead. A great lump formed rapidly, but I was not stunned 
and did not show any signs of being seriously injured. I 
seemed perfectly rational, and assented at once to the sugges- 
tion that I should bathe the place with cold water. But the 
moment that the cold water touched the place I seemed to 
wander and to forget what had occurred, saying, ' Hullo ! 
What 's the row ? What has happened ? Why am I bathing 
my head ? ' However, as I felt that my head was hot and 
painful I went on bathing it, until the five minutes 'warning' 
bugle sounded for going in to study, when the others left me, I 
saying that I would follow in a minute or two. Shortly after- 
wards I was found sitting on the steps leading to the backyard 
of my barracks by a servant, who asked me whether I was not 
going in to study. I told him the story of my wrestle and 
fall, and said that I should not go in to study, as my head 

1 The account was written in 1876 and communicated at that date to the 
Psychological Society, from whom we received it in 1884. 



400 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

ached badly in consequence. He suggested my lying down 
on my bed, which I acceded to. So he accompanied me to 
my room and prepared my bed for me. I lay there for an 
hour or two during which I was visited by two or three officers, 
to whom I explained all that had happened quite rationally. 
Some time after dark I was taken out of the warm room and 
put into a Bath-chair outside, where a cold wind was blowing. 
The moment the cold air blew upon my uncovered head I 
seemed to begin to wander again, and asked where I was, 
what was the matter, why I was going to hospital (which I 
realised to be the case from the presence of the Bath-chair, 
only used for that purpose), etc. My cap was then put on my 
head, and the chair shut up. On arriving at the hospital I 
wandered through the different wards, inquired the names of 
the cadets in each, and having ascertained that one to whom 
I had a dislike was in the ward in which there was the largest 
number of empty beds, and which I was therefore sure to be 
told off to, went to the nurse, and manoeuvred successfully to 
get myself put in another. I told the cadets and surgeon 
what had happened to me, and conducted myself, throughout, 
in the most perfectly rational manner. My head had to be 
partially shaved, that leeches might be applied ; and though 
the orderly lathered me with hot water, he did not warm the 
razor. I perfectly understood all that was being done, and 
why, until the cold razor touched my head, when I seemed to 
wander again and began asking for explanations. The moment 
the razor was taken away, my memory returned, until the 
leeches' cold bodies touched my head, when I relapsed into 
the same state. 

" When I awoke, the next morning, I had forgotten, for ever, 
everything that had occurred, from half an hour or so before 
my wrestle, up to the moment of waking — except what had 
happened and passed through my mind during the brief inter- 
vals when anything cooling was in contact with the injured 
spot, all of which I still remember distinctly, though now 
about twenty-seven years ago. 

" A. Joy. 

" Junior United Service Club, 9th December, 1876." 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 40I 

Such a secondary consciousness, which in Mr. 
Joy's case lasted for a few hours at most, has been 
known to alternate with the primary consciousness 
for the greater part of a lifetime. The classical 
example is Felida X., the daughter of a captain in 
the French merchant service, born near Bordeaux in 
1843, whose case has been observed and recorded for 
a period of many years by Dr. Azam of Bordeaux. 1 

" Up to the age of fourteen, Felida was a quick, industrious, 
somewhat silent child, remarkable chiefly for a varied assort- 
ment of pains and ailments of hysterical origin. One day, 
when engaged in her regular occupation of sewing, she sud- 
denly dropped off to sleep for a few minutes, and awoke a new 
creature. Her hysterical aches and ailments had disappeared, 
she had changed from gloom to gaiety, from morose silence to 
cheerful loquacity. Presently Felida slept again, and awoke 
to her usual taciturnity. Asked by a companion to repeat a 
song which she had just been singing, Felida stared in amaze 
— she had sung no song. In brief, all the incidents of that 
short hour between a sleep and a sleep were for her as though 
they had never been. In a day or two the same sequence was 
repeated, and so on day by day, until her friends learned to 
look for and welcome the change ; and her lover grew accus- 
tomed to court her in the second state, when her somewhat 
gloomy stolidity had given place to brightness and gaiety. In 
due course she married ; and as time went on the second state 
came to usurp more and more of her conscious life — until, in 
her prime, she would spend months together in that state, with 
only short intervals of recurrence to her normal condition. 
The characteristics of the two states remained unchanged ; in 
her first, or what we must call her normal, state, she retained 
the remembrance of those things only which had come to her 
knowledge when in the normal state, but the memory of the 
second, or abnormal, state embraced her whole conscious life. 

1 Hypnotisme, Double Conscience, et alterations de la Personnalite', Paris, 1887. 
26 



402 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC A I RESEARCH. 

t 
Thus in her later life an occasional relapse to her primary 
state was attended with very serious inconvenience, for with it 
the memory of large tracts of her life would disappear. The 
history of the few months preceding would vanish like a 
dream. She would not know the whereabouts of her hus- 
band and her children ; she would not recognise the dog 
which played at her feet, nor the acquaintance of yesterday. 
She knew nothing of her household requirements, her business 
undertakings, her social engagements. Once the relapse came 
during her return from a funeral, and she had to sit silent and 
learn gradually from the conversation around her whose ob- 
sequies she had been attending. Her gloom and despair 
during these brief intervals of interrupted fragmentary life are 
so great as almost to impel her towards suicide. 

" Even her normal affectionate relations with her husband 
are altered in these relapses. She complained to Dr. Azam 
on one occasion : ' Ce qui me desole c'est qu'il m'est impos- 
sible d'avoir rien de cache pour lui, quoiqu'en fait je n'aie 
rien a dissimuler de ma vie. Si je le voulais, je ne le pourrais 
pas. II est bien certain que, dans mon autre vie, je lui dis 
tout ce que je pense.' Finally, Felida occasionally relapses 
into a third state, characterised by terrifying hallucinations 
and hyperaesthesia of the skin. In this state she recognises 
her husband only ; and behaves as if stricken with madness." 1 

It seems probable that these alternations of 
memory are connected with some changes in the 
supply of blood to the brain. There are many in- 
dications of disturbance of circulation in the patient. 
There is much hemorrhaofe from the mucous mem- 
brane of the stomach, throat, mouth, and nose ; 
and even occasionally from the skin of the head ; 
and local congestions, confined to the left side, so 
that her left hand has been known to swell to such 
an extent as to burst her glove. 2 

1 Loc. cit., p. 102. 2 Loc. cit., p. 96. 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 403 

In Felida's case, as in that of the ordinary hyp- 
notic subject, the primary and secondary conscious- 
ness may be represented by two concentric circles, 
of which the secondary is the larger. Sometimes, 
however, the two memories are mutually exclusive, 
as in the following case : 

" The Rev. Ansel Bourne, of Greene, R. I., was brought up 
to the trade of a carpenter ; but in consequence of a sudden 
temporary loss of sight and hearing under very peculiar cir- 
cumstances, he became converted from Atheism to Christian- 
ity just before his thirtieth year, and has since that time for 
the most part lived the life of an itinerant preacher. He has 
been subject to headaches and temporary fits of depression of 
spirits during most of his life, and has had a few fits of uncon- 
sciousness lasting an hour or less. He also has a region of 
somewhat diminished cutaneous sensibility on the left thigh. 
Otherwise his health is good, and his muscular strength and 
endurance excellent. He is of a firm and self reliant disposi- 
tion, a man whose yea is yea, and his nay nay ; and his char- 
acter for uprightness is such in the community that no person 
who knows him will for a moment admit the possibility of his 
case not being perfectly genuine. 

" On January 17, 1887, he drew 551 dollars from the bank in 
Providence, with which to pay for a certain lot of land in 
Greene, paid certain bills, and got a Pawtucket horse-car. 
This is the last incident which he remembers. He did not re- 
turn home that day, and nothing was heard of him for two 
months. He was published in the paper as missing, and foul 
play being suspected, the police sought in vain his where- 
abouts. On the morning of March 14th, however, at Norris- 
town, Pennsylvania, a man calling himself A. J. Brown, who 
had rented a small shop six weeks previously, stocked it with 
stationery, confectionery, fruit and small articles, and carried 
on his quiet trade without seeming to anyone unnatural or 
eccentric, woke up in a fright and called the people of the 
house to tell him where he was. He said his name was Ansel 



404 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Bourne, that he was entirely ignorant of Norristown, that he 
knew nothing of shop-keeping, and that the last thing he re- 
membered — it seemed only yesterday — was drawing the money 
from the bank, etc., in Providence. He would not believe 
that two months had elapsed. The people of the house 
thought him insane ; and so, at first, did Dr. Louis H. Read, 
whom they called in to see him. But on telegraphing to Provi- 
dence confirmatory messages came, and presently his nephew, 
Mr. Andrew Harris, arrived upon the scene, made everything 
straight, and took him home. He was very weak, having lost 
apparently over twenty pounds of flesh during his escapade, 
and had such a horror of the idea of the candy store that he 
refused to set foot in it again. 

" The first two weeks of the period remained unaccounted 
for, as he had no memory, after he had once resumed his nor- 
mal personality, of any part of the time, and no one who knew 
him seems to have seen him after he left home. The remark- 
able part of the change is, of course, the peculiar occupation 
which the so-called Brown indulged in. Mr. Bourne has never 
in his life had the slightest contact with trade. " Brown " was 
described by the neighbours as taciturn, orderly in his habits, 
and in no way queer. He went to Philadelphia several times, 
replenished his stock ; cooked for himself in the back 
shop, where he also slept ; went regularly to church ; and 
once at a prayer meeting made what was considered by the 
hearers a good address, in the course of which he related 
an incident which he had witnessed in his natural state of 
Bourne. 

" This was all that was known of the case up to June, 1890, 
when I induced Mr. Bourne to submit to hypnotism, so as to 
see whether, in the hypnotic trance, his " Brown " memory 
would not come back. It did so with surprising readiness ; 
so much so indeed that it proved quite impossible to make him 
whilst in the hypnosis remember any of the facts of his normal 
life. He had heard of Ansel Bourne, but " didn't know as he 
had ever met the man." When confronted with Mrs. Bourne 
he said he had " never seen the woman before," etc. On the 
other hand, he told of his peregrinations during the lost fort- 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 405 

night ; (he had spent an afternoon in Boston, a night in New 
York, an afternoon in Newark, and ten days or more in Phila- 
delphia, first in a certain hotel and next in a certain boarding- 
ing house ; making no acquaintances, " resting," reading, and 
" looking round." I have unfortunately been unable to get 
independent corroboration of these details, as the hotel regis- 
ters are destroyed, and the boarding house named by him has 
been pulled down. He forgets the name of the two ladies 
who kept it) and gave all sorts of details about the Norristown 
episode. The whole thing was prosaic enough ; and the Brown 
personality seems to be nothing but a rather shrunken, de- 
jected, and amnesic extract of Mr. Bourne himself. He gives 
no motive for the wandering except that there was"' trouble 
back there" and he "wanted rest." During the trance he 
looks old, the corners of his mouth are drawn down, his voice 
is slow and weak, and he sits screening his eyes and trying 
vainly to remember what lay before and after the two months 
of the Brown experience. "I 'm all hedged in," he says, " I 
can't get out at either end. I don't know what set me down 
in that Pawtucket horse-car, and I don't know how I ever left 
that store or what became of it." His eyes are practically 
normal, and all his sensibilities (save for tardier response) 
about the same in hypnosis as in waking. I had hoped by 
suggestion, etc., to run the two personalities into one, and 
make the memories continuous, but no artifice would avail to 
accomplish this, and Mr. Bourne's skull to-day still covers two 
distinct personal selves. 

" The case (whether it contains an epileptic element or not) 
should apparently be classed as one of spontaneous hypnotic 
trance, persisting for two months. The peculiarity of it is 
that nothing else like it ever occurred in the man's life, and 
that no eccentricity of character came out. In most similar 
cases the attacks recur, and the sensibilities and conduct 
markedly change." 1 

1 Principles of Psychology, by William James, vol. i., pp. 391, etc. A 
fuller account of the case, by Dr. Hodgson, who has made a careful invest- 
igation of all the circumstances, will be found in Proc. S. P. R.^ vol. vii., 
p. 221 et seq. 



406 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

Sometimes the division between the two states 
of consciousness is even more profound. Thus in 
the case of Mary Reynolds, 1 in the secondary state 
memory had almost entirely vanished ; the patient 
could not recognise the house and its surroundings ; 
even her own parents, brother and sister, were as 
strangers ; " all of the past that remained to her 
was the faculty of pronouncing a few words," and 
even these apparently conveyed no meaning for 
her. She had to relearn the arts of reading and 
writing. From about the age of twenty to thirty- 
five Miss Reynolds continued to alternate between 
her first and second states of consciousness, but 
the last twenty-five years of her life were passed 
entirely in the second state. In a case recorded 
by Dr. Azam, 2 the subject — a lad of twelve — in the 
second state forgot how to read and write, and 
spoke with difficulty, but never forgot his prayers. 
A case occurred in France a few years ago in which 
the subject, during a spontaneous access of second- 
ary consciousness lasting for some weeks, went to 
visit an uncle, who was a Bishop, and there broke 
up the Bishop's furniture and committed various 
other misdemeanours, for one of which he was sent- 
enced in a court of law. The sentence was an- 
nulled when the fact of the abnormal division of 
conciousness was established. 3 In this case, as in 
Ansel Bourne's, memory of the secondary state was 
revived in the hypnotic trance. 

1 See W. James, op. cit. (vol. I., p. 381). 

2 Op. cit., p. 221 et seq. 

3 Revue de V Hypnotisme, March, 1890 ; Brit. Med. Jour., May 17, 1890. 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 407 

Finally there are some hysteroepileptic subjects, 
with whom various French observers — Prof. Pierre 
Janet, M. Jules Voisin, Dr. Bourru, and others, — 
have obtained very remarkable results. 

Lucie, a patient of Professor Janet, had a terrible fright at 
the age of nine, which brought on a series of severe epileptic 
attacks. She is now (or rather was at the time when she was 
first described) almost completely anaesthetic. She has no 
sense of touch, and no muscular sense. She " loses her legs 
in bed," as she herself describes it, and can only walk by 
looking at the ground and at her limbs. She is very deaf, 
and her sight — her most serviceable sense — is extremely de- 
fective ; and she has no recollection of her childhood before 
the age of nine. Put into the first stage of somnambulism, as 
Lucie II., she recovers something of her lost memory and 
senses. But it is as Lucie III., in the deepest stage of the 
hypnotic trance, that the most marked change is observed. 
She can now feel her limbs, and feel also all objects in contact 
with her. She can walk without looking at her feet or the 
floor. Concurrently with this is observed a corresponding en- 
largement of her memory. She is conscious, not only of all 
that has happened in the first and second states, but she re- 
members also the first nine years of her life, and can give a 
clear account of the terrible fright which brought on her 
calamity. 1 

A very similar case, also a hystero-epileptic 
woman, has been recorded by Dr. Morton Prince, 
of Boston, U. S. A. 2 In one of the cases described 
by the French observers, that of the celebrated 
Louis V., no less than six different physiological 
states, characterised by various anaesthesias and 
paralyses, are recorded — each of these states being 

1 P. Janet, L Automatisme Psychologique, pp. 104-5. 

2 Boston Med. and Surgical yournal, May 15, 1890. 



408 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

accompanied by a memory and consciousness pecu- 
liar to itself. 1 

To return to Lucie. Prof. Janet found that 
whilst Lucie was awake and in her normal state, he 
could, whilst talking to her, induce the tertiary 
self, so to speak, to communicate with him in 
writing ; Lucie I. being quite unconscious, all the 
time, that her hand was writing anything at all. 
Lucie III. would even communicate thus whilst 
her primary self was in the throes of an epileptic 
seizure ; but the hand then would write only, " J'ai 
peur, J'ai peur." 

"This appropriation by the subliminal conscious- 
ness of the right hand for the purposes of writing 
presents a curious parallel to the results obtained 
by Mr. Gurney through planchette with various 
hypnotised subjects. Another spontaneous ex- 
ample, in the case of a hystero-epileptic, is recorded 
by Dr. Ira Barrows, of Providence, R. I. 2 In this 
case, whilst the patient was wildly delirious, the 
right arm remained sane, and would attempt to re- 
strain the movements of the body, and protect the 
patient from her own violence. Conversely, the 
delirious patient was convinced that the right arm 
was not her own, but a foreign body ; she called it 
"Old stump," would bite it, pinch it, and try to 
drive it away from her. Finally, at night, when the 
body was apparently sleeping, the right arm would 
be wide awake, and would write letters and poetry, 
some pieces from memory, some apparently original. 

1 Bourru & Burot, Variations de la Personnalite. 
v 2 Quoted in Proc. Am. S. P. R., i., p. 552 et sea. 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 409 

This brief survey of the manifestations of the so- 
called secondary or subliminal consciousness sug- 
gests the following provisional conclusions : That 
the observed facts do not warrant the assumption 
of a secondary stream of consciousness, or continu- 
ous chain of memories, in normal individuals ; that 
such a secondary chain may, however, arise in cer- 
tain pathologic states, and may be artificially in- 
duced by hypnotism or other means ; that when 
once established, it may, within very narrow limits, 
be active concurrently with the normal waking con- 
sciousness ; that certain stages of the hypnotic 
trance, and also hysteria and other states accom- 
panied by a secondary consciousness, are character- 
ised by various peculiarities, enlarged control over 
the muscles, voluntary and involuntary, as well as 
over the vascular and respiratory system, and the 
organic functions generally ; extension of various 
sensory capacities, and a greater activity of the pict- 
orial imagination ; there are also in this state some 
indications of enhanced susceptibility to mental 
suggestion, and possibly of clairvoyance and other 
hypothetical faculties of a transcendental kind : 
that the hypnotic consciousness in certain individ- 
uals, and also many instances of spontaneous sec- 
ondary consciousness, present little difference from 
the normal consciousness in the same individual, 
except such as can be accounted for by the oblivion 
which divides the two states. 

Such, then, are the facts which call for explana- 
tion. Of the psychical theory advanced by Mr. 
Myers our present knowledge hardly permits us to 



4IO STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

say that it is in any particular at variance with the 
facts. But it certainly goes beyond them ; that is, 
it is largely founded on assumptions and conjectural 
interpretations. Of physiological theories none 
have so far been put forward which seem adequate 
to the facts as a whole, however nicely adjusted to 
individual observations. It is doubtful if, with our 
present knowledge, we should be justified in ex- 
plaining even planchette writing as in all cases due 
to unconscious cerebration ; and it is quite clear 
that Dr. Carpenter's theory will not carry us much 
beyond that point. 1 Heidenhain's 2 view — previ- 
ously advanced by Braid — that the phenomena of 
the hypnotic trance are due to the inhibition of the 
higher parts of the brain and to the unaccustomed 
activity of lower centres, thus released from their 
normal control, serves well to account for many of 
the characteristic phenomena of hypnotism — the 
greater prominence of organic processes, increased 
capacity for muscular output, hallucinatory activity, 
and so on. All these indicate that in the hypnotic 
trance, as in sleep, we are dealing with a more 
primitive mental state, in which various activities, 
repressed in waking life, regain full liberty. But 
this hypothesis will clearly not help us to explain 
Madame B., Felida X., and Ansel Bourne. Pro- 
fessor Ribot explains the unity and complexity of 
the conscious ego as but the subjective expression 
of the unity and complexity of the physical organ- 

1 See his Mental Physiology, chap, xiii., " Of Unconscious Cerebration." 

2 Hypnotism or Animal Magnetism. Transl., by L. C. Wooldridge. 
London : Kegan Paul & Co., 1888. 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 411 

ism, and essays to prove that any disturbance of the 
one will reflect itself in the other ; and that just 
because the unity of the organism — and of con- 
sciousness — is a highly complex thing, built up of 
many varying and unstable elements, we must 
expect to find it liable to be split up in many differ- 
ent ways. Whilst declining to speculate on the 
exact nature of the cerebral changes which under- 
lie these dissociations of conciousness, he suggests 
that the ground of the feeling of unity and identity 
which informs all our psychic life is to be found, 
not in those elements of which we are most vividly 
conscious, but in that complex of vaguely realised 
but permanent sensations which come to us from 
our own organism ; and holds that any change or 
loss of these sensations must at once and power- 
fully affect the conscious self. 1 

Some of the recorded cases of spontaneous second- 
ary consciousness strongly suggest the alternating 
predominance of the right and left hemispheres of 
the brain. This is the solution to which Dr. Azam 
inclines. 2 Prof. Janet has propounded an ingenious 
hypothesis, based on the study of Lucie and other 
hystero-epileptic patients. He suggests that the 
changes of memory and consciousness are due to 
perversions or enlargements of the sensory mechan- 
ism. According to him the memory of the normal 
individual is based exclusively upon sensations of 
one kind, — auditory, visual, tactile, etc., and upon 
the ideas which represent these sensations. But 

1 Les Maladies de la Personnalite. 2 Op. cit., pp. 18 1-3. 



412 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

any disturbance of the organism — a disturbance 
which may range from ordinary sleep to hystero- 
epilepsy— is liable to change " the orientation of 
the thoughts " and introduce secondary memories, 
based on other sets of sensations. In the average 
healthy man these secondary memories will have 
but a brief existence, and may never re-appear. But 
in persistently pathologic states such secondary 
memories may develop, even to the extent of 
ousting the primary memory from the field of con- 
sciousness. Thus the thought processes of Madame 
B. in her normal state are concerned with visual 
images exclusively ; as Leonie II., auditory images 
predominate; whilst Leonie III. is a "motile." In 
poor hystero-anaesthetic Lucie, whose only sound 
sense is that of sight, and who has lost control of 
the entire mechanism, from external organ to 
ideational centre, of the other senses, the system of 
thought is necessarily based on visual images. But 
when we enlarge the sensory basis by restoring 
temporarily a lost sense, the chain of memories 
which depends on that sense is restored too. Thus 
Lucie, in recovering her sense of touch and mus- 
cular sense, recovered also the memory of her child- 
hood, the period when the muscular sense, it seems, 
formed the main thread upon which the sequence 
of ideas and sensations was strung. 1 

On this theory — and it seems at any rate to in- 
clude some elements of the true solution — it may 
be argued that the secondary consciousness, in the 

'Janet, op. cit., pp. 105, 137, etc. 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 413 

hypnotic trance for instance, must be superior to 
the primary or normal consciousness, since it in- 
cludes the latter, and has, therefore, by hypothesis, 
a wider sensory basis ; and indeed, as already 
shewn, there are not wanting indications that the 
hypnotised subject can often boast a sensory equip- 
ment superior to that of waking life. It is held by 
some that in this state we have a prophecy of the 
future endowments of the race. But it seems more 
probable that these abnormal conditions are not a 
prophecy, but a survival : that in such cases there 
is temporarily restored a more primitive stage of 
consciousness. Such a consciousness might indeed 
be superior, as including more sensory elements ; 
but what the civilised consciousness has lost in ex- 
tension it has no doubt gained in intensity. Our 
sensory equipment, less complete, perhaps, than 
that of the child or the savage, is, it may be haz- 
arded, better adapted to its purpose. For poor 
Lucie an impaired vision was all the salvage which 
she could retain from the wreck of her organism. 
In the hurry and stress of living, it may be sug- 
gested, we have had to drop articles of luxury, as 
the keen scent, the telescopic eye, the unerring 
sense of direction, which served primeval man ; we 
have long ceased to take much account of our or- 
ganic sensations in general, and we have lost some- 
thing perhaps of the abounding muscular sense of 
our own immediate past. Some of us even, as 
Mr. Galton 1 has shewn, have purchased increased 

1 Inquiries into Intellectual Faculty. 



414 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

powers of abstract thinking by the sacrifice of that 
vivid pictorial memory which is still part of the 
heritage of the race. The sensory apparatus which 
remains to us represents, it would seem, only what 
we have the means or the leisure to keep in good 
repair. 

For the pressure upon the area of our working 
consciousness is great, and its capacity limited. As 
a result, whole classes of ideas and sensations get 
crowded out. In the long ascent from the amoeba 
we may suppose that group after group of simple 
sensations fell back into the unconscious or the 
" not-so-conscious," as their place was required by 
the more complex images called into existence by 
the changing environment. Even in the lifetime 
of the individual the thoughts and memories of 
childhood and youth are gradually thrust into that 
twilight by the urgent affairs of our maturer life. 
Year by year sensations once vivid grow fainter, 
and finally pass unregarded. New forms of activity 
are practised with anxious care, and repeated until 
use has made them familiar, and ultimately cease to 
require an express mandate from the sovereign 
power for their performance. It is, then, of this 
psychological lumber-room that the crystal and the 
hypnotist's command throw open the door. It by 
no means follows from the fact that the furniture 
thus revealed has been gradually rejected by the 
growing consciousness, that it is of little value. In 
the lumber-room of memory we may find much that 
we would gladly see furbished up and brought into 



SECONDARY CONSCIOUSNESS. 415 

the daylight again — forgotten scenes, neglected 
ideals, faith grown dusty from disuse. Sometimes 
we may find there a "Wild Duck Attic" — the 
hidden romance of a life-time. It is likely enough 
that the empirical process of selection which the 
contents of our consciousness have undergone 
causes the loss of much that we would not willingly 
let pass away. When the nature of the process 
and the results which attend it are more clearly 
recognised, we may find it possible to recover 
something of these waste products, and thus en- 
large and enrich our work-a-day selves. But as yet 
we seem to have found in the subliminal conscious- 
ness no certain indication of any knowledge or 
faculties which have not at some time played a part 
in the primary field. We come across memories of 
childhood, and many old forgotten things ; we dis- 
cover what seem to be traces of long lost but once 
serviceable faculties — telepathy, sense of time, of 
direction, of weight; we acquire partial control 
over bodily functions — digestion, circulation, and 
the like — which civilised man has learned to ac- 
quiesce in as beyond his guidance. But in all this 
we only resume possession of our own. And we 
have as yet, I submit, no sufficient evidence of 
anything beyond that. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 

THE older mesmerists believed themselves to 
have found in the utterances of the hypno- 
tised subject proofs of a supernormal faculty of 
acquiring knowledge of things remote in space or 
time. This hypothetical faculty they named Clair- 
voyance. The Spiritualists in more modern times 
have discerned in the speaking of entranced per- 
sons, and the writings of automatists, indications of 
external inspiration, and in some cases believe that 
they are by this means enabled to hold communica- 
tion with the spirits of their departed friends. As 
already indicated, the religious doctrines of modern 
Spiritualism are in great measure based upon reve- 
lations from this source. In the present chapter it 
is proposed to examine the grounds upon which 
these beliefs rest. 

Impersonation. 

To the unquestioning observer, the fact that an 
entranced person commonly gives himself another 
name in the trance and assumes a different person- 
ality is in itself proof of possession or inspiration. 
But in fact this characteristic springs naturally and 

416 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 417 

almost inevitably from the changes of memory and 
consciousness which are associated with the trance, 
and from the more deep-seated alterations in the 
physiological groundwork of consciousness, which 
these surface changes reflect. When, indeed, the 
new memory is entirely shut off from the old mem- 
ory — as in Ansel Bourne's case — there can be no 
knowledge of the old life, and therefore no sense 
of contrast ; a new name is assumed in such a case 
merely because the patient has forgotten his old 
one. But in the more common case, where the 
new memory includes the old one and something 
more, there is naturally a sense of contrast, a feel- 
ing of an enlarged or altered personality. Some- 
times, as with Felida X., and with most hypnotics, 
the sense of identity persists through the changed 
conditions. Sometimes, as with Madame B., there 
is a more or less deliberate assumption of a differ- 
ent personality at each stage, and a certain antago- 
nism (of which indeed we saw the germ in Felida) 
develops between these artificial selves. But there 
is still no hint of possession, probably because that 
idea was not suggested or encouraged by the scien- 
tific observers in whose society Madame B.'s trance 
life has been spent. Conversely, with the Spiritu- 
alists it was quite natural that the trance personality 
should call itself a Big Indian, a Persian Prince, 
Shakespeare, Emerson, or somebody's grandmother, 
according to the suggestions offered by the beliefs, 
the hopes, and aspirations of the medium and his 
environment. In two or three instances we have 



41 8 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

been enabled to assist at the birth of these allo- 
tropic personalities. Professor Janet describes an 
incident of this kind. He had — as stated in the last 
chapter — taught the secondary self of Lucie to com- 
municate with him in writing whilst Lucie was in 
the primary state. One day, whilst Lucie was 
talking to someone else in the room, Professor 
Janet held the following conversation with the 
hidden intelligence : 

" Do you hear me ? " said he. She replied in writing, " No." 
J. " But if you can answer you must be able to hear." L. 
" Yes, certainly." J. " Well, then, how do you manage ?" L. 
" I don't know." J. " There must clearly be someone who 
hears me." L. " Yes." J. "Who is it?" L. "It isn't 
Lucie." J. " Well, then, someone else. Shall we give her 
a name ? " L. " No." J. " Yes, it would be more conven- 
ient." L. " Well, then, Adrienne." J. " Very well, Adrienne, 
can you hear me ? " L. " Yes." 1 

Here the secondary personality was baptised 
against its will. In another case, recorded by 
an acquaintance of my own, the communicating 
intelligence, though not until after a considerable 
interval, spontaneously gave itself a name. Our 
informant, Mr. D., was experimenting with plan- 
chette, at Easter, 1883. He found the planchette 
moved readily under his hand, and propounded a 
series of anagrams and conundrums, which he had 
no conscious knowledge of having invented, and 
which it cost his conscious self some labour to 
solve. On the third day of these experiments he 
writes : 

1 V Automatisme Psychologique, pp. 317, 318. 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 419 

" I was so astonished at the apparently independent will and 
intellect manifested in forming the above anagrams that, for 
the nonce, I became a complete convert to Spiritualism ; and 
it was not without something of awe that I put — 

" Question 7. Who art thou ? 

" Answer 7. Clelia ! 

" Q. 8. Thou art a woman ? 

" A. 8. Yes. 

" Q. 9. Hast thou ever lived upon earth ? 

"A. 9. No. 

" Q. 10. Wilt thou ? 

" A. 10. Yes. 

"Q. 11. When? 

" A. 11. Six years." 

But alas ! on the morrow Clelia repudiated her reve- 
lations and even denied her own existence, and 
planchette to the question, " Do I answer myself?" 
replied " Yes." l 

One of the most persistent and characteristic of 
these pseudo-personalities is Dr. Phinuit, or, to 
give him his full name, Dr. Jean Phinuit Scliville, 
the " control " of Mrs. Piper. Mrs. Piper, to whose 
trance utterances we shall revert in the latter part 
of this chapter, is an American lady, who for some 
ten or twelve years past has been liable to pass 
into spontaneous (z. e. self-induced) trances. In 
these trances she assumes a voice and manner 
which differ markedly from the voice and manner 
of Mrs. Piper in her normal state, and purports to 
be possessed — or, in Spiritualistic phraseology, 
" controlled " — by one Dr. Phinuit. Dr. Phinuit's 

1 For a full account of this case, see Mr. Myers's article on Automatic 
Writing. — Proc. S. P. R., vol. ii., pp. 226-231. 



420 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

own account of himself is that he is a French 
physician, who was born at Marseilles about i 790, 
and died about i860. He has given various par- 
ticulars about his birth, education, and life in Paris, 
but the inquiries which have been made have failed 
to reveal any trace of such a person as having lived 
and died as stated. Moreover, it appears that, 
though Phinuit is sometimes very felicitous in diag- 
nosing the ailments of those who consult him, his 
medical knowledge is extremely limited ; he does 
not know the Latin names of the various drugs 
which he prescribes, and cannot recognise common 
medicinal herbs when shown to him. In other 
words, he has given no indications of possessing 
any scientific knowledge of medicine. Moreover, 
though professing to be the spirit of a French doc- 
tor, his knowledge of French appears to extend 
only to a few simple phrases, and a slight accent, 
which is occasionally serviceable in disguising a 
bad shot at a proper name. This ignorance of his 
native language is, he explains, due to his having 
lived for some years in Metz, where there were 
many English residents ! It seems probable then 
that this Phinuit is neither French nor a doctor. 
Dr. Hodgson has enquired into his origin, and 
finds that Mrs. Piper fell into the trance in 1887 at 
a visit to a professional medium, named Cocke, 
who was himself "controlled" by the spirit of a 
French doctor named Finne. Mrs. Piper's first 
11 control" was an Indian girl, who bore without re- 
proach the name of Chlorine. Soon, however, it 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 42 1 

appears, Dr. Finne displaced the volatile Chlorine, 
entered into combination himself with Mrs. Piper, 
and metamorphosed his name into Phinuit. It re- 
mains to be added that when these historical facts 
were brought by Dr. Hodgson to Dr. Phinuit's 
notice, that personage professed to remember that 
his real name was not after all Phinuit, but Alaen. 
Further, he betrayed some uncertainty whether he 
had been born at Marseilles or Metz, and whether 
he had passed the latter part of his life at Metz or 
Paris. It seems, then, that we need not seriously 
consider whether Phinuit is in very deed the spirit 
he would be taken for. 1 

Clairvoyance. 

If the faithful acting of the part chosen or as- 
signed to it, eked out with a display of knowledge 
readily accessible from normal sources, were all 
that the trance-personality had to show, it is proba- 
ble that the idea of spirit communion would not 
have played so important a part as it has done in 
the history of Spiritualism, and certain that the 
subject would offer little to detain us here. But it 
is unquestionably the case that the trance intelli- 
gence frequently possesses, or makes a plausible 
show of possessing, information which could not 

1 It should be said, however, that Dr. Hodgson, who has had exceptional 
opportunities of judging, since he has had Mrs. Piper under close observa- 
tion in her trances, and in ordinary waking life, for some years past, is of 
opinion that she is herself guiltless of intentional deception ; that she knows 
nothing of what takes place in the trance ; and that the pseudo-Phinuit is 
perhaps equally ignorant of Mrs. Piper's real life. This view is confirmed 
by other observers. 



422 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

have been acquired by normal means : and claims 
to have acquired this knowledge, sometimes by> 
the exercise of a supernormal clairvoyance ; some- 
times through the spirit of the entranced person 
having temporarily left the body, and having thus 
visited the scenes which it describes ; and some- 
times, again, through possession by, or direct inter- 
course with, the spirits of deceased persons. It- 
will be convenient to examine first the claim to a 
supernormal faculty of acquiring knowledge ; and 
we will begin, therefore, by citing a case in which 
the secondary intelligence expressly repudiates any 
spirit influence. The late Mr. P. H. Newnham, 
sometime Vicar of Maker, near Devonport, con- 
ducted in 1 87 1 a series of planchette experiments 
with his wife, in the following manner : Mr. and 
Mrs. Newnham sat at different tables, in such a 
position that Mrs. Newnham could not see what 
Mr. Newnham wrote. Mr. Newnham would then 
write a question, the answer to which would be 
given through planchette guided by Mrs. Newn- 
ham's hand. Now Mrs. Newnham had no con- 
scious knowledge either of the question written by 
her husband, or of the answer written by her own 
hand through planchette. Nevertheless, the an- 
swers so written were in almost every case relevant 
to the question, and frequently betrayed, not merely 
a knowledge of its exact tenor, but even an im- 
perfect acquaintance with other facts apparently 
not known to Mrs. Newnham. On one occasion, 
as a test, Mr. Newnham and a friend went out of 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 423 

the room, shutting the door behind them, and the 
friend wrote down, " What is the Christian name 
of my eldest sister ? " Mrs. Newnham, inside the 
room, wrote the correct answer through planchette, 
"Mina" (an abbreviation of Wilhelmina). The 
evidence of supernormal knowledge seems, there- 
fore, strong ; but we find that planchette persist- 
ently represented that the answers were due to 
Mrs. Newnham's brain. Mr. Newnham (a Mason) 
was much struck by the fact that planchette fre- 
quently shewed some knowledge of Masonic ritual, 
of which he believed Mrs. Newnham to know 
nothing. He therefore directed his questions to 
eliciting the source from which this information 
was derived. The following is a selection from 
this catechism : 

March 15th. 

132. Who then makes the impression upon her ? 
A. Many strange things. 

133. What sort of strange things ? 

A. Things beyond your knowledge. 

134. Do then things beyond our knowledge make im- 

pressions upon wife? 
A. Influences which no man understands or knows. 

136. Are these influences which we cannot understand ex- 

ternal to wife ? 
A. External — invisible. 

137. Does a spirit, or do spirits, exercise those influences ? 
A. No, never (written very large and emphatically). 

138. Then from whom, or from whence, do the external in- 

fluences come ? 
A. Yes ; you will never know. 

139. What do you mean by writing " yes " in the last answer ? 
A. That I really meant never. 



424 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC AI RESEARCH. 

March 19th. 
142. By what means are (unknown) secrets conveyed to wife's 
brain ? 
A. What you call mesmeric influence. 

144. What do you mean by " what you call ? " What do you 

call it ? 
A. Electro-biology. 

145. By whom, or by what, is the electro-biologic force set in 

motion ? 
A. I told you you could not know more than you did. 

146. Can wife answer a question the reply to which I do not 

know ? 
A. Why do you try to make me say what I won't? 

147. Simply because I desire knowledge. Why will not you 

tell ? 
A. Wife could tell if someone else, with a very strong 
will, in the room knew. 1 

The nature of these experiments (which were 
communicated by Mr. Newnham for publication in 
the S. P. R. Proceedings) renders it difficult to 
doubt the accuracy of their record. We seem, 
indeed, in this case, to be precluded from invoking 
any external agency ; but the results afford striking 
evidence of the transmission of thought from the 
husband to the wife ; a transmission of a very 
curious but by no means unprecedented kind, since 
the information thus conveyed never penetrated to 
Mrs. NewnhanYs upper consciousness at all. 

We have many cases in our records which seem 
to point to the occurrence of spontaneous clairvoy- 
ance during sleep. The following instance may be 
cited as an illustration. It is one of several similar 

1 Proc. S. P. R., iii., pp. 10, 11. 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 425 

incidents within the experience of the narrator, 
who, it is fair to state, in sending her account to 
us explained that she believed all the coincidences 
to be accidental, and the more clearly accidental 
the more numerous the coincidences. 

1884. 

From Miss Busk, 16 Montagu Street, W. 

" I dreamt that I was walking in a wood in my father's place 
in Kent, in a spot well-known to me, where there was sand 
under the firs ; I stumbled over some objects, which proved to 
be the heads, left protruding, of some ducks buried in the 
sand. The idea impressed me as so comical that I fortunately 
mentioned it at breakfast next morning, and one or two per- 
sons remember that I did so. Only an hour later it happened 
that the old bailiff of the place came up for some instructions 
unexpectedly, and as he was leaving he said he must tell us a 
strange thing that had happened. There had been a robbery in 
the farmyard, and some stolen ducks had been found buried 
in the sand, with their heads protruding, in the very spot where 
I had seen the same. The farm was under-let, and I had not 
even any interest in the ducks, to carry my thoughts towards 
them under the nefarious treatment they received. 

" R. H. Busk." 

Miss Busk's sister, Mrs. Pitt Byrne, who was 
present when this dream was told, corroborates as 
follows : 

" I distinctly remember, and have often since spoken of, the 
circumstance of Miss R. H. Busk's relating to me her dream 
of ducks buried in the wood, before the bailiff who reported 
the incident came up to town. 

" J. Pitt Byrne." ' 

It is, however, in crystal vision and in the hyp- 
notic trance that we find the most abundant evi- 

1 Phantasms of the Living, vol. i., p. 369. 



426 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

dence of the faculty. The lady who writes under 
the pseudonym of Miss X. has had many clairvoy- 
ant visions of distant scenes in the crystal. Indeed 
the crystal or some similar means, such as a mirror, 
or a pool of ink in a boy's hand, was a favourite 
device with mediaeval soothsayers, and still obtains 
in some oriental countries, for reading the future 
and the distant. The following account records 
one of several similar incidents which have been 
observed with Madame B., the well-known hypno- 
tic subject referred to in the previous chapter : 

From Professor Richet : 

" On Monday, July 2, 1888, after having passed all the day 
in my laboratory, I hypnotised Leonie at 8 p.m., and while she 
tried to make out a diagram concealed in an envelope I said 
to her quite suddenly : ' What has happened to M. Langlois ?' 
Leonie knows M. Langlois from having seen him two or three 
times some time ago in my physiological laboratory, where he 
acts as my assistant. — ' He has burnt himself,' Leonie replied. 
— ' Good,' I said, ' and where has he burnt himself ? ' — * On the 
left hand. It is not fire : it is — I don't know its name. Why 
does he not take care when he pours it out ? ' — ' Of what 
colour,' I asked, ' is the stuff which he pours out ? ' — ' It is not 
red, it is brown ; he has hurt himself very much — the skin 
puffed up directly.' 

" Now, this description is admirably exact. At 4 p.m. that 
day M. Langlois had wished to pour some bromine into a 
bottle. He had done this clumsily, so that some of the bro- 
mine flowed on to his left hand, which held the funnel, and at 
once burnt him severely. Although he at once put his hand 
into water, wherever the bromine had touched it a blister was 
formed in a few seconds — a blister which one could not better 
describe than by saying, ' the skin puffed up.' I need not say 
that Leonie had not left my house, nor seen any one from my 
laboratory. Of this I am absolutely certain, and I am certain 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 427 

that I had not mentioned the incident of the burn to any one. 
Moreover, this was the first time for nearly a year that M. 
Langlois had handled bromine, and when Leonie saw him six 
months before at the laboratory he was engaged in experi- 
ments of quite another kind." l 

With the earlier mesmerists the exercise of this 
alleged supernormal faculty commonly took the 
form of " travelling clairvoyance." The mesmerist, 
having placed his subject in the trance, invited her 
in spirit to accompany him to some place, unknown 
to her, with which he was familiar, and describe the 
surroundings, the persons which she saw there, and 
their occupations. Occasionally the process would 
be varied, and the spirit of the clairvoyant would 
be despatched on a lonely journey to discover a 
missing whaleboat, the whereabouts of a murderer, 
or the fate of Sir John Franklin. 2 

The following is a typical case of the kind. The 
account, which was procured for us by Dr. Back- 
man of Kalmar, was written by Mr. H. J. Ankar- 
krona, Director-General of Pilotage in Sweden. 
Baron von Rosen, the hypnotiser in the case, has 
given an independent account of the seance, which 
accords with the narrative below in all its main 
features. 3 

Mr. Ankarkrona's account is as follows : 

1 Proc, S. P. R., vol. vi., pp. 69, 70. 

2 A selection of the best attested cases of clairvoyance — spontaneous and 
induced — will be found in Mrs. Sidgwick's papers on Clairvoyance. Proc. 
S. P. R., vol. vii., pp. 30 and 356. 

3 This account, which is too long to reproduce here, will be found in the 
Proc, S. P. R., vol. vii., pp. 205-6. 



428 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

" At the end of last September I made a tour along the 
coast of Westervik on H. M. service, to inspect some newly 
built lighthouses there. At Oskarshaum I went on board the 
pilot-steamer Kahnar. Besides the crew, there were present 
on board the Captain of Pilotage, Baron von Rosen, the Bar- 
oness, and a young woman in his service, named Alma. On 
the coast of Westervik we met with the Captain of Pilotage, 
Mr. Smith, from Norrkoping. On the evening of September 
2 1 st we were lying at anchor in the Kahnar in a creek on the 
coast. Knowing Alma to be an uncommon ' medium,' I asked 
her if Baron von Rosen might hypnotise her. ' Yes, with 
pleasure, as soon as I have washed up the china,' she replied. 
I had already spoken to Baron von Rosen. Soon after ten 
Alma went down into the cabin and declared herself ready. 
Baron von Rosen sent her to sleep, and I then asked him to 
ask her whether she would like to go to my house at Stock- 
holm, give a description of it, and see what the inmates were 
doing. ' I never tried such an experiment before, but I will 
try it,' the Baron replied. And so the experiment proceeded 
in about the following manner (Baron von Rosen asking the 
questions). 

" Baron von Rosen : Will Alma go to the house of the Com- 
mander Ankarkrona at Stockholm and see how it is there ? 
Alma : Yes (her voice was feeble and as it were hissed out). 
Q. Is Alma there ? A. Yes. Q. What do you see ? A. A 
small room with very, very dark tapestries with gold on the 
walls. Q. How many windows ? A. One. Q. What else do 
you see ? A. Two paintings ; — one, a landscape, the other a 
marine scene. Several other pictures. In one corner a book- 
shelf ; in another a bouquet, but not of flowers. On one wall 
a portrait of a lady, in oils. On the floor a carpet, not cover- 
ing the whole floor ; on the carpet a table ; on the table a 
lamp ; by the table a chair, on which Mrs. Ankarkrona is sit- 
ting. Q. What is she doing ? A. She is looking at a news- 
paper. Q. What newspaper? A. Dagbladet 1 (I said, I do 
not take the Dagbladet). Q. You must look better for the 
name. What newspaper is it ? A. Svenska (I take the Svenska 

1 The name commonly given to the Stockholm Dagblad. — A. Backman. 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 429 

Dagbladet). Q. How is Mrs. A. dressed ? A. In black, with 
the bodice brocaded. 

" Q. Can you go into the drawing-room ? A. Yes. Q. 
How many windows are there ? A. Three. Q. What more 
do you see ? A. Plenty of furniture ; two chaises tongues, such 
as I never saw before. Two large tables and several small 
ones. Great brown draperies for the doors, of the same stuff 
as that which covers the furniture. The window curtains are 
double, with broad lace. On the tables and everywhere are 
bibelots. Easels with portraits of ladies and gentlemen. A 
number of plants ; several made of paper. A magnificent 
chandelier. On the wall a large landscape. On one wall a 
peculiar drapery of plush with a broad golden cornice. Every- 
where small pieces of plate, with something written on them ; 
I cannot say what. Two very beautiful vases. Q. (at my 
suggestion von Rosen asked), Is not the chandelier covered 
with stuff ? A. No. (When I left Stockholm the chandelier 
had been covered ; but the cover had been removed on the 
same day.) Q. What have they been doing (in the house) to- 
day ? A. Sweeping. (The furniture had been taken out and 
beaten.) 

" Q. Where has Mrs. A. been to-day ? A. Out of the 
house. Q. Can you go into the kitchen ? A. Yes. Q. How 
are you coming into it? A. Now I am going through a din- 
ing-room ; now through a long, narrow passage, which is a 
service-room ; now I am in the kitchen. Q. What do you see 
there ? A. Two maid-servants ; one older, one younger. The 
elder one is standing by the fireplace. The younger one is 
sitting on a chair with some needlework. This one I have 
seen before. Q. Can you go to the place where Mrs. A. has 
been to-day ? You must go out by the lobby ? A. Yes. Q, 
How does the lobby look ? A. Long, narrow, and dark ; on the 
floor a thick carpet, covering about half the floor ; a lamp in a 
glass case is hanging from the ceiling. Q. Is Alma there now ? 
A. Yes. Q. Was the way long ? A. Not very (the houses are 
in the same street). Q. What do you see ? A. A gentleman, 
a lady, and a baby about two months old. I have seen the 
lady before. Q. What is she like ? A. She is dark, with 



430 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

brown eyes. Q. And the gentleman ? A. He is fair (grey- 
haired). Q. What is the gentleman ? A. I cannot see. Q. 
Look in the wardrobe ? A. An officer. Q. What is the lady 
doing ? A. She is sitting on a chair, with the child on her 
knees. Q. Is she suckling it ? A. No ; she only looks at 
it. On the floor is standing an old maidservant (a nurse ar- 
rived that same day, or a few days before). Q. What is the 
name of the lady ? A. I do not remember. 

" Q. Will you go to Norrkoping and see what it is like at 
Captain Smith's ? A. No. Q. Pray do so ; Captain Smith 
wishes it. A. Yes. Q. Is Alma there ? A. Yes. Q. What 
do you see ? A. A lady and a little child. The child is ill ; 
but it is nothing dangerous. There are two bedsteads for 
children in this room. (The child was ill before Mr. Smith 
left Norrkoping.) 

" When Alma had slept calmly for a little time she was 
awakened, and then remembered everything perfectly. About 
ten days afterwards she completed her account to the Baroness 
von Rosen, who took notes of it. When she awoke she rubbed 
her arm, and when we asked her why she did so, she answered 
that she had been sleeping so deeply that the arm had grown 
numb. 

" Asked where she had seen the younger maidservant, she 
replied : ' I saw her this summer from the Kahnar through a 
telescope — she was standing on the pilot-steamer Ring.' (She 
had in fact been housemaid on the Ring.) While we were 
talking and wondering over what had just passed, we men- 
tioned the name Rosenblad. Alma exclaimed with pleasure, 
' Rosenblad is the name of the lady.' She had seen her in 
Kalmar during the summer. When shown my photograph, 
standing in a glass frame in the cabin, she said that ' the 
photographs standing in the Commander's drawing-room were 
like that.' 

" The remarks between round brackets are mine. 

" No one of the persons on board the steamer had ever 
visited my house at Stockholm. Alma's description cor- 
responds perfectly with the reality. The only points in which 
she was mistaken were: (i) That she saw 'two beautiful 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIR VO VANCE. 43 I 

vases ' in the drawing-room. These may have been two 
branched candelabra of china which stood on the stove. (2) 
She saw a gilded cornice above the drapery in the drawing- 
room. It is, however, only painted in oil ; but in a certain 
light it has the look of being gilt. 
" Stockholm, January 28, 1889. 

"H. J. Ankarkrona." 

Unfortunately the original notes of the experi- 
ment, which were sent at the time to Mrs. Ankar- 
krona, are not forthcoming. But the narrative 
given above, written a few months later and con- 
firmed by another independent account, may, I 
think, be taken as substantially accurate. 

In the next case the things seen were unknown 
to any one present ; but the close relationship be- 
tween the hypnotic and the person whose doings 
at a distance were clairvoyantly seen may have 
facilitated the action of telepathy. 

Mr. A. W. Dobbie, the experimenter in this 
case, is a gentleman residing in Adelaide, S. Aus- 
tralia, who has practised hypnotism for many 
years, and has hypnotised, chiefly for curative pur- 
poses, some hundreds of persons. Some of the 
subjects have shown traces of clairvoyance, and in 
these cases he has kept full contemporary notes of 
the experiments. When on a visit to this country, 
in 1889, he allowed us to inspect these notes. The 
following account is extracted from them : 

" June 10, 1884. 
" Up to the present time this has been the most interesting 
case I have had." 

(Mr. Dobbie then explains that he had mesmerised Miss 



432 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

on several occasions to relieve rheumatic pain and sore 



throat. He found her to be clairvoyant.) 

" The following is a verbatim account of the second time I 
tested her powers in this respect, April 12, 1884. There were 
four persons present during the seance. One of the company 
wrote down the replies as they were spoken. 

" Her father was at the time over fifty miles away, but we 
did not know exactly where, so I questioned her as follows : 
' Can you find your father at the present moment ? ' At first 
she replied that she could not see him, but in a minute or two 
she said, ' Oh, yes, now I can see him, Mr. Dobbie.' 'Where 
is he ? ' ' Sitting at a large table in a large room, and there 
are a lot of people going in and out.' 'What is he doing?' 
' Writing a letter, and there is a book in front of him.' ' Who 
is he writing to?' 'To the newspaper.' Here she paused 
and laughingly said, ' Well, I declare, he is writing to the 
A B (naming a newspaper). ' You said there was a book 
there. Can you tell me what book it is ? ' 'It has gilt letters 
on it.' ' Can you read them, or tell me the name of the 
author? She read, or pronounced slowly, ' W. L. W.' (giving 
the full surname of the author). She answered several minor 
questions re the furniture in the room, and I then said to her, 
' Is it any effort or trouble to you to travel in this way ? ' 
'Yes, a little ; I have to think.' " 

" I now stood behind her, holding a half-crown in my hand, 
and asked her if she could tell me what I had in my hand, to 
which she replied, 'It is a shilling.' It seemed as though she 
could see what was happening miles away easier than she could 
see what was going on in the room. 

" Her father returned home nearly a week afterwards, and 
was perfectly astounded when told by his wife and family 
what he had been doing on that particular evening ; and al- 
though previous to that date he was a thorough sceptic as to 
clairvoyance, he frankly admitted that my clairvoyant was 
perfectly correct in every particular. He also informed us 
that the book referred to was a new one, which he had pur- 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CIAIRVOYANCE. 433 

chased after he had left his home, so that there was no possi- 
bility of his daughter guessing that he had the book before 
him. I may add that the letter in due course appeared in the 
paper ; and I saw and handled the book." l 

There are a few cases in which experiments have 
been designed with a view to test the subject's 
power of obtaining knowledge of facts not known 
to any person present. 2 Anna B., a laundress, is 
the subject of Dr. Ferroul, Mayor of Narbonne. 
In the hypnotic trance she has given remarkable 
proof of her power of seeing events at a distance. 
From an account contributed to the Annates des 
Sciences Psychiques? by M. A. Goupil, I extract the 
following : The account, it will be seen, is founded 
on Dr. Ferroul's notes taken at the time, and on a 
contemporary letter, both of which have been seen 
by M. Goupil. 

i° Cas du Boulou. 

Ce cas se produisit dans le courant de juin, 1894. M. Fer- 
roul attendait du Boulou, localite situee a 86 kilometres de 
Narbonne, deux personnes devant arriver par le train. 

Ces personnes n'arrivant pas, et ne recevant pas de nouvelles 
motivant le retard, M. Ferroul fit venir Anna et la mit en etat 
de somnambulisme avec ordre de se rendre au Boulou ; il la 
guida par ses indications, connaissant les lieux ; mais Anna 
n'y etait jamais allee. 

J'y suis, dit elle, c'est de telle et telle facon ; mais je ne 
vois personne. 

1 Proc. S. P. P., vii., p. 64. 

2 See, for instance, Proc. S. P. P., vii., pp. 59, 63, 73, 207. Also Profes- 
sor Charles Richet's experiments, ibid., vols. v. and vi. It should be added 
that Professor Richet's experiments, though some success was attained, are 
not regarded by him as conclusive. 

3 May-June, and July-August, 1896. 

28 



434 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC A I RESEARCH. 

Entrez dans la maison. 

J'y suis, ah ! grand Dien ! qu'est-il arrivt ! Madame est 
sur le lit, blesse'e a I'epaule et aux reins, mais elle ne saigne pas 

. . Voila : la voiture a verse, le cocker est tombk d'tm cote', 
7?iais na pas eu de mal. 

A. B dit ensuite que le docteur faisait un pansement et 

demandait une bande plus longue que celle qu'il tenait en 
main, et autres details. (J'ai lu tous ces details sur le carnet 
de M. Ferroul.) Aussitot apres, M. Ferroul passa une depeche 
au Boulou : " Est-il vrai qu'il vous est arrive' accident voiture ? " 

Le lendemain matin, il recevait une lettre de son ami (lettre 
que j'ai lue) ; cet ami commencait par s'etonner que M. Fer- 
roul ait pu avoir connaissance de Taccident ; les renseigne- 
ments de la lettre concordaient bien avec les indications de la 
lucide. 

On another occasion a piece of paper enclosed 
in three distinct envelopes, and securely sealed, 
was handed to Dr. Ferroul. On the piece of paper 
were written some words not known to Dr. Ferroul. 
Anna in the trance read the words, 

" Votre parti certainement 
Se tue par l'assainissement." 

After the words had been written down, the paper 
was examined, and envelopes and seals found in- 
tact. The seals were then broken, the paper re- 
moved from its envelopes and opened, and the words 
were found to be correct. 

So far, then, the evidence points to the existence 
in certain persons, who are generally in the hyp- 
notic trance or in some allied state, of a peculiar 
condition of receptivity, which facilitates the tele- 
pathic transmission of ideas consciously or uncon- 



IMPER SON A TION, OB SE SSI ON, CLA IR VO YA NCE. 435 

sciously present in the minds of those in the 
immediate surroundings ; and, more doubtfully, to 
the occasional transmission of such ideas from 
persons at a considerable distance from the sub- 
ject. Further than this the evidence so far adduced 
will not carry us. We have now to consider the 
cases which are held to afford proof of spirit 
communion. 

Possession. 

Instances of spontaneous "possession'' exhibit- 
ing any kind of plausibility are rare. One of the 
best attested cases is that of Lurancy Vennum. 
I quote, slightly abridged, the account given by 
Prof. W. James of Harvard, based upon a tract 
published in 1887. 1 

Lurancy Vennum was a girl of fourteen, living (in 1877 ap- 
parently) with her parents at Watseka, Illinois. She was sub- 
ject to hysterical attacks, and possessions by alleged spirits, 
which ultimately culminated in an attack in which she declared 
herself possessed by the spirit of Mary Roff, the daughter of 
a neighbour who had died twelve years before. Lurancy, she 
said, was temporarily in heaven. At her urgent request the 
soi-disant Mary Roff went to stay with her " parents," the 
Roffs. 

" The girl, now in her new home, seemed perfectly happy 
and content, knowing every person and everything that Mary 
knew when in her original body, twelve to twenty-five years 
ago ; recognising and calling by name those who were friends 
and neighbours of the family from 1852 to 1865, when Mary 
died ; calling attention to scores, yes, hundreds of incidents 
that transpired during her natural life. During all the period 
of her sojourn at Mr. Roffs she had no knowledge of, and did 
1 Principles of Psychology, vol. i., pp. 397, 398. 



436 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

not recognise, any of Mr. Vennum's family, their friends or 
neighbours ; yet Mr. and Mrs. Vennum and their children vis- 
ited her and Mr. Roff's people, she being introduced to them 
as to any strangers. After frequent visits, and hearing them 
often and favourably spoken of, she learned to love them as 
acquaintances, and visited them with Mrs. Roff three times. 
From day to day she appeared natural, easy, affable, and in- 
dustrious, attending diligently and faithfully to her household 
duties, assisting in the general work of the family as a faithful, 
prudent daughter might be supposed to do, singing, reading, 
or conversing, as opportunity offered, upon all matters of priv- 
ate or general interest to the family." 

" Mary " would sometimes whilst at the Roffs " go back to 
Heaven," i. e. y leave the body in a quiet trance. Gradually, 
however, Lurancy's personality returned, and was at the end 
of fourteen weeks completely re-established ; and Lurancy 
Vennum returned to her home, and welcomed her own rela- 
tives after the flesh. 

Professor James adds in a note : " My friend, 
Mr. R. Hodgson, informs me that he visited Wat- 
seka in April, 1889, and cross-examined the princi- 
pal witnesses of this case. His confidence in the 
original narrative was strengthened by what he 
learned ; and various unpublished facts were as- 
certained which increased the plausibility of the 
spiritualistic interpretation of the phenomena." 

It seems clear, however, that a spontaneous case 
of this kind, even if watched by competent observ- 
ers and supported by contemporary records, could 
not, in view of the extreme difficulty of ascertain- 
ing how much Lurancy could have learnt by normal 
means of the life and doings of poor Mary Roff, 
afford more than a faint presumption for spirit 
agency. Mary Roff had herself died in a lunatic 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 437 

asylum, and it is not unlikely that her tragic history 
possessed a morbid interest for her little neighbour 
— herself a girl of unstable equilibrium. 

The direction in which proof of spirit communion 
may be sought with most hope of success is no 
doubt in the seance room, where the conditions are 
more completely under control, and the limits of 
the medium's knowledge can be defined with less 
ambiguity. As a matter of fact the literature of 
Spiritualism presents us with a vast mass of what 
purport to be spirit communications. There are 
few instances, however, where the substance of the 
messages has been recorded, and the attendant cir- 
cumstances investigated, with sufficient care to give 
them a substantial value in an inquiry like the pre- 
sent. The alleged communications of Mr. Stainton 
Moses have been already referred to. 1 But it would 
not be fair to take these utterances as typical of Spir- 
itualistic evidence in general. Of late years some 
evidence of the kind desired has come to light out- 
side the ranks of professed Spiritualists. Thus 
Miss X. has had many personal experiences which 
point at least to a supernormal faculty of acquiring 
knowledge, and a remarkable body of evidence on 
this subject is furnished by the trance utterances of 
Mrs. Piper. Dr. Phinuit — the ordinary " control " 
— may indeed, as already indicated, with much prob- 
ability be assumed to be merely the trance-person- 
ality of Mrs. Piper, masquerading under an acci- 
dentally suggested name. But apart altogether 

1 See note at end of Chapter IV. 



438 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

from the question of Phinuit's identity, the sub- 
stance of his communications merits our attention ; 
and there are other " controls " than Phinuit, 
whose claims to independent existence seem to 
be better substantiated. 

Mrs. Piper, a lady living in Boston, first passed 
into a spontaneous trance in 1888. Very shortly 
afterwards she came under the notice of Prof. W. 
James, of Harvard, who, with other observers has 
investigated her powers with great care. At one 
time Dr. Hodgson arranged to have both Mr. and 
Mrs. Piper shadowed for some weeks by private 
detectives, in order to ascertain whether they took 
any means to procure information as to the affairs 
and antecedents of possible sitters. No suspicious 
circumstance of any kind was brought to light. 

Professor James has borne emphatic testimony 
to the extraordinary nature of the communications 
made through Mrs. Piper's entranced organism : 

" The most convincing things said about my own immedi- 
ate household were either very intimate or very trivial. Un- 
fortunately the former things cannot well be published. Of 
the trivial things I have forgotten the greater number, but the 
following, raroz nantes, may serve as samples of their class : 
She said that we had lost recently a rug, and I a waistcoat. 
(She wrongly accused a person of stealing the rug, which was 
afterwards found in the house.) She told of my killing a 
grey-and-white cat, with ether, and described how it had 
i spun round and round ' before dying. She told how my New 
York aunt had written a letter to my wife, warning her against 
all mediums, and then went off on a most amusing criticism, full 
of traits vifs, of the excellent woman's character. (Of course 
no one but my wife and I knew the existence of the letter in 



IMPERSONATION OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 439 

question). She was strong on the events in our nursery, and 
gave striking advice during our first visit to her about the way 
to deal with certain ' tantrums ' of our second child, ' little 
Billy-boy,' as she called him, reproducing his nursery name. 
She told how the crib creaked at night, how a certain rocking- 
chair creaked mysteriously, how my wife had heard footsteps 
on a stair, etc., etc. Insignificant as these things sound when 
read, the accumulation of them has an irresistible effect, and I 
repeat again what I said before that, taking everything that I 
know of Mrs. Piper into account, the result is to make me 
feel as absolutely certain as I am of any personal fact in the 
world that she knows things in her trances which she cannot 
possibly have heard in her waking state, and that the defini- 
tive philosophy of her trances is yet to be found. The limita- 
tions of her trance information, its discontinuity and fitfulness, 
and its apparent inability to develop beyond a certain point, 
although they end by arousing one's moral and human impa- 
tience with the phenomenon, yet are, from a scientific point 
of view, amongst its most interesting peculiarities, since where 
there are limits there are conditions, and the discovery of 
them is always the beginning of an explanation. 

" This is all I can tell you of Mrs. Piper. I wish it were more 
1 scientific' But valeat quantum ! it is the best I can do." * 

* Proc. S. P. R. vol. vi., pp. 658-9. Compare with this account the im- 
pressions of another well known literary man, M. Paul Bourget, who visited 
Mrs. Piper during his recent travels in America, and contributed to the 
Figaro of Jan. 14, 1895, an account of his experiences, from which the 
following extract is taken : 

Mrs. P. — me tenait les mains, et elle touchait en meme temps une toute 
petite pendule de voyage ayant appartenu a quelqu'un qu'elle ne pouvait pas 
avoir connu, — un peintre qui s'est tue dans des circonstances particuliere- 
ment tristes de folie momentanee. Comment arriva-t-elle a me dire et cette 
profession de l'ancien proprietaire de la pendule et sa folie, et le genre meme 
de son suicide ? Y avait-il une communication entre mon esprit et son 
esprit a elle, dedouble dans cette mysterieuse personnalite du docteur Lyon- 
nais ? Mes mains, qu'elle tenait entre les siennes, lui revelaient-elles, par 
des fremissements perceptibles a l'hyperacuite de ses nerfs, mes impressions 
sous chacun de ses mots, et avait-elle conserve, dans son sommeil, un pouvoir 
de se laisser guider par ces minuscules jalons ? Ou bien, car il faut toujours 



440 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

The limitations of Mrs. Piper's powers, and the 
fitfulness of their exercise, as indicated by Prof. 
James, are often very conspicuous. At its worst 
a sitting with Mrs. Piper is much like a sitting with 
the ordinary professional medium — a few lucky 
shots, diluted with much apparently disingenuous 
shuffling and fishing for information. But the 
records of Spiritualism and clairvoyance hardly 
afford a parallel to Mrs. Piper's trance utterances at 
their best. The following is a sample of a success- 
ful sitting : The narrator, Mr. J. T. Clarke, it 
should be explained, had left England in the 
autumn of 1889 for a hurried business visit to 
America. There he had an interview with Mrs. 
Piper. Mr. Clarke had friends in Boston, some of 
whom had had sittings with Mrs. Piper, but his 
wife and children had never been in America. 

Notes of this seance were taken by Dr. Hodgson, 
and Mr. Clarke after the seance added his com- 
ments. These comments, or the substance of them 
in an abbreviated form, are placed in the account 
which follows between brackets. 

Chocorua, New Hampshire, in house of Dr. William James. 
September 20, 1889. 

reserver une place au scepticisme, etait-elle une comedienne incomparable 
et qui devinait mes pensees au ton seul de mes questions et de mes repon- 
ses ? . . . Mais non. Elle etait sincere. Les physiologistes qui l'ont ob- 
served dans ses crises ont trop souvent reconnu le caractere magnetique de 
son sommeil a des indices mecaniques qui ne trompent pas. Tout ce que 
je peux conclure des details re-ellement extraordinaires qu'elle me donna, a 
moi, un etranger de passage, sur un disparu, et dont je n'avais parle a per- 
sonne dans son entourage, c'est que l'esprit a des procedes de connaitre, 
non soupconnes par notre analyse. 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 44I 

Mr. Clarke fixes his mind steadily upon a certain house, and 
visualises members of family ; of this no recognition by 
medium, who begins : 

(1) Why! I know you ! I have seen your influence some- 
where before ! What are you doing over here ? 

(Mr. Clarke explains that some intimate friends had had 
sittings with Mrs. Piper, in the course of which his name and 
that of his mother had been mentioned). 

(2) Oh ! There is lots of trouble over you, black clouds all 
over you ; but I see light beyond ; you will come out all right. 
It is financial trouble that I mean, you will wade through it 
all right in the end. 

(Correct. My visit to America was determined by a finan- 
cial failure, the loss from which I was then endeavouring to 
minimise.) 

" How long hence ? " 

(3) Four months or four months and a half. There are 
parties that have not dealt honourably with you. 

(Mr. Clarke adds that he had at the time a lurking distrust — 
afterwards proved to be unfounded — of the " parties " re- 
ferred to.) 

(4) I see your lady in the spirit, your mother — have seen 
her before. 

(There followed a clear account of my own conception of 
my mother, recently deceased, whose constant presence in my 
mind readily accounts for the frequent mentions of her.) 

(5) You've also got a lady in the body, your wife. You 
won't find her very well. 

(Prophecy wrong. My wife never better in health.) 

(6) Do you know a man named Williams — no, wait ! Will- 
iamson ? (Reply, " No.") Tall, rather dark, first name Henery 
(sic). He will come into your surroundings soon — he will 
have something to do with your papers and with law. He 
will look after your interests and get you out all right. You 
will meet him very soon — within a few weeks. 

(Mr. Clarke had written down in his note book some days 
previously the name of the lawyer — Lambertson — entrusted 
with his defence ; but had completely forgotten it.) 



442 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

(7) Part of your interest is in the ground ; you came near 
being " left " in this business, but are not altogether. 

(Correct. Property consisted of a town lot and buildings, 
and I certainly felt that I had come near losing it.) 
" Tell me about my mother." 

(8) Your mother is with us. She is here and happy in the 
spirit. 

(This, I take it, is the way that mediums, burdened with the 
conventional news and the phrases customary in spiritualistic 
circles, find it most natural to express the conception which 
they receive from another mind of a person being a memory, 
an image of the mind as opposed to a living reality.) 

(9) Who is this M. your cousin ? Your mother says she is 
not very well. She is getting better, but she will continue 
weak. 

(The health of the person referred to, though improved at 
the time, had caused both myself and my mother much 
solicitude.) 

" Can you see my children ? " 

(10) Wait. . . . Who is this about you that is musical, 
that plays the piano (imitating action of fingers) ? Ah, it is 
your lady in the body. She is not very well just now — she is 
suffering from rheumatism. 

(My wife plays the piano much. She was well and has 
never suffered from rheumatism.) 
" Do you see my children ? " 

(11) No, not at all yet : I shall directly. Wait. Who is 
this Fred that comes together with your mother ? 

(A cousin lost at sea ten years ago, under peculiarly shock- 
ing circumstances. His death made a great impression upon 
me.) 

Is he not your cousin ? 

"Yes." 

(12) He comes with your mother. She knows him better 
now than she did before death. . . . Who is this uncle of 
yours, named John ? 

" I have no uncle John." 

Yes, yes, you have — the man that married your aunt. 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 443 

" No, you are wrong : the man that married my aunt was 

called Philip." 

Well, I think I know. (Changes subject, grumbling.) 

(I had entirely forgotten for the moment that an aunt of 

mine had indeed married a man named John, with whom I had 

formerly had some correspondence. I did not recollect this 

until the following day.) 

(13) Why ! you are a funny fellow — you are covered with 
paint from head to foot. Your mother says it is too bad. 

(I had been much interested in painting the walls of a 
room in the house of my friend for some days previously.) 

(14) I 'd like to know who this H. is that you are going to 
see. Take good care of that man. He is a tricky one. 
Don't let him get you into his power. 

(This is an altogether unjust accusation, based upon an 
unwarrantable distrust entertained by me at the time.) 

(15) Here is your Rebecca ! 

[Clarke and Hodgson both ask "mine"? each having 
relatives of that name.] 

(To Clarke :) Your Rebecca, your little girl. She runs 
around and gives her hand to everyone about her. 

" Is there another little one like her ? " 

Yes, there are three of your people together there now. 

(My wife and two children.) 

(16) "How is Rebecca?" 
Very well. 

" Where is she now ? " 

She is in the spirit. That is to say, her spirit 's here, but 
her body is at a distance. 

(My child was in Germany at the time, and thus lived 
rather in my memory than in my daily view. Hence, al- 
though the medium felt that she was alive (" Her body is at 
a distance " ) her personality was yet spoken of as " in the 
spirit." ) 

(17) You will soon have a surprise. It is a photograph of 
your boy that is being made for you. It is unfinished as 
yet, but will surprise you. 

(I was at that time taking photographs which were not to 



444 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

be developed, and consequently could not be seen until my 
return to England.) 

(18) There are five of you ; yourself, your two children, 
your lady in the body, and your lady in the spirit. 

(This is my constant feeling — the " we are seven " of my 
surroundings.) 

(19) What are these tickets that you have in your pocket? 
There are figures on them stamped in red, and they are signed 
with names underneath. They will be of value to you, you 
will get something out of them. 

" No, I have nothing of the kind in my pocket." 
(Mr. Clarke explains that he afterwards found he actually 
had in an inside pocket two cheques endorsed on the back 
as described, and stamped with large and peculiar red 
numbers.) 

(20) " Where is my wife ? " 

She is across country. She has been away. 

(My wife had intended to go to Germany from England, 
soon after my sudden departure for the United States ; I did 
not positively know that she was away from home, but I 
should have assumed it as well-nigh certain.) 

(21) There is a young man and an old lady with her. 
(There followed an accurate interpretation of my estimate 

of the characters of these two persons, who I knew must be 
together with my wife.) . . . The young man is coming 
back again ; he is going still more across country. 

(Correct. I knew that my brother-in-law had to return 
from the Tyrol to his home on the Baltic.) 

(22) . . . (Further reference to my mother, describing 
her character and representing her as she lives in my 
memory.) . . . That is an old-fashioned portrait of her, 
not very good, but better than nothing. "Where? Which 
one ? " It is at home. I mean the one with the collarette. 

(A sufficient indication of one of the few portraits of my 
mother.) 

(23) Who is this funny-footed fellow of yours, the one with 
the club feet and the funny shoes ? Your mother says it is an 
injustice to you, too bad — but it will come out all right. 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 445 

(Correct. My boy was born with club feet, and wears 
machine boots.) 

(24) Why ? You've changed your house recently. 
" No." 

Yes, your lady has changed her house. 

" Well you may mean that she is away from her house, that 
is true. Now describe the house in which we live generally.'* 

Yes. Wait a minute. I will go into the door at the side. 
What is that tall, old-fashioned thing in the back room ? Ah, 
it is a big clock. 

(Correct.) 

(25) " Now go into the kitchen." 

Yes. No one here now (10 p.m. in New Hampshire — 3 a.m. 
in England). A fat person, a cook, has been here. Big man, 
with a dark moustache has also been here a good while during 
the day, and has left his influence here. 

" Who is he ? " 

He has been put here to watch the place. 

" Is he trustworthy and faithful ? " 

Yes, he is trustworthy. 

(Interesting error. It was arranged on my leaving Eng- 
land, — in case the servant should object to being left in the 
house alone during the absence of my wife in Germany — that 
a policeman should be hired to guard the house and to live in 
it. As a matter of fact, however, there was no man in the 
house.) 

(26) You have lost your knife ! Your mother tells me that. 
(This loss had vexed me, as the knife had been made to 

order. I had lost it shortly before leaving England.) 

(27) "Where is it ? " 

Oh, it is gone ; you will never see it again. 
(The prophecy proved to be signally wrong, as the knife was 
restored to me soon after my return.) 

(28) " Describe the other room on the ground floor now." 
Yes. I see a long piano. What is that high thing that 

comes forward on top of the piano ? Ah, I see ; it is the lid. 
(Clock and piano are respectively chief features of the two 
rooms). 



446 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

(29) " What colour is the wall paper of this room ? " 

Let me see. It is yellowish with gold pattern and gold 
spots. 

(Correct.) 

In short, many things that I knew, even some things that I 
had forgotten, the clairvoyant could tell me correctly, albeit 
somewhat confusedly. She made all the mistakes that I 
should have made at the time, and her prophecies were quite 
as erroneous as any that I might have invented myself. 

One sees the contents of one's mind as in a warped and 
flawy mirror, or, to take the case from the other side, the sec- 
ondary consciousness of the medium seems able to get occa- 
sional glimpses of the panorama of one's memory as through 
the rents in a veil. No doubt Phinuit gives the fullest and 
best results when left unquestioned to tell what he can. If 
pressed to fill up the broad expanses of the picture remaining 
between the patches which he sees, he is obliged, despite his 
pretensions to supernatural knowledge, to take refuge in 
awkward evasions and " shuffling," — in guess work, often 
clearly based upon hints unconsciously afforded by the sitter 
— or, when all else fails, in incoherent and unmeaning talk. 
Yet, while fully recognising these repelling features of the 
manifestations, I am yet convinced that there is enough that is 
genuine remaining to prove the existence of a direct commu- 
nication between mind and mind during the trance state. A 
single success exceeding the limits of coincidence (and it is 
undeniable that there are many such), proves the possibility ; 
the multitude of failures merely indicate the difficulty and 
uncertainty. 1 

J. T. C. 

It will be seen that here most of the statements 
made, except those which concern the future, were 
correct. No true statement was made, however, 
on any matter not known to Mr. Clarke. We 
need not look further than telepathy for an explan- 

1 Proc. S. P. R., vol. vi., pp. 569-574. 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 447 

ation in such a case. Indeed, as Mr. Clarke 
points out, one or two of the statements made, 
though they failed to correspond to the facts of 
the case, suggest rather strongly that Phinuit was 
reproducing the thoughts, — conscious or latent — 
of the sitter. 

In the winter of 1888-9, Mrs. Piper came to 
this country at the invitation of certain members 
of the S. P. R., and gave a large number of sit- 
tings. She was a complete stranger in England ; 
she was met on her landing in this country by Pro- 
fessor Lodge ; she stayed for the whole of her visit 
in the house of some member of the Society, or in 
apartments chosen by them, in Liverpool, Cam- 
bridge, and London ; and she was during the 
whole period under close and almost continuous 
observation. Add to this that the sitters — of 
whom many, and those not the least successful, 
were persons not connected with, nor specially in- 
terested in, the Society — were with few exceptions 
introduced to her under assumed names ; and it 
will be seen that the hypothesis that Mrs. Piper 
acquired by normal means the curious information 
— names of various relatives, out-of-the-way bits of 
family history, odd details of personal description, 
diagnosis of the diseases of absent friends, etc. — 
which Phinuit lavished in the seance-room on per- 
sons who were unknown to the medium even by 
name, becomes cumbrously difficult, if not alto- 
gether inconceivable. Mrs. Piper's trance-utter- 
ances, even if they indicate nothing else, form 



448 STUDIES IN PSYCHIC A I RESEARCH. 

one of the strongest items in the case for thought- 
transference. If our researches in every other 
direction had proved unfruitful, Mrs. Piper would 
still, in Professor James's words, stand out as the 
one white crow which proves that not all crows are 
black. 

But in fact, even so far back as 1888, there were 
some incidents in the seances which required the 
theory of thought-transference to be strained to the 
uttermost. The following case may be taken as 
a sample : 

From Professor Lodge, F. R. S. 

" It happens that an uncle of mine in London, now quite 
an old man, and one of a surviving three out of a very large 
family, had a twin brother who died some twenty or more 
years ago. I interested him generally in the subject, and 
wrote to ask if he would lend me some relic of this brother. 
By morning post on a certain day I received a curious old 
gold watch, which this brother had worn and been fond of ; 
and that same morning, no one in the house having seen or 
knowing anything about it, I handed it to Mrs. Piper when in 
a state of trance. 

" I was told almost immediately that it had belonged to one 
of my uncles — one that had been mentioned before as having 
died from the effects of a fall — one that had been very fond 
of Uncle Robert, the name of the survivor — that the watch 
was now in possession of this same Uncle Robert, with whom 
he was anxious to communicate. After some difficulty and 
many wrong attempts Dr. Phinuit caught the name, Jerry, 
short for Jeremiah, and said emphatically, as if a third person 
was speaking ' This is my watch, and Robert is my brother, 
and I am here. Uncle Jerry, my watch.' All this at the first 
sitting on the very morning the watch had arrived by post, no 
one but myself and a shorthand clerk who happened to have 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CIAIRVOYANCE. 449 

been introduced for the first time at this sitting by me, and 
whose antecedents are well known to me, being present. 

" Having thus ostensibly got into communication through 
some means or other with what purported to be a deceased 
relative, whom I had indeed known slightly in his later years 
of blindness, but of whose early life I knew nothing, I pointed 
out to him that to make Uncle Robert aware of his presence 
it would be well to recall trivial details of their boyhood, all 
of which I would faithfully report. 

" He quite caught the idea, and proceeded during several 
successive sittings ostensibly to instruct Dr. Phinuit to men- 
tion a number of little things such as would enable his 
brother to recognise him. 

" References to his blindness, illness, and main facts of his 
life were comparatively useless from my point of view ; but 
these details of boyhood, two-thirds of a century ago, were 
utterly and entirely out of my ken. My father was one of the 
younger members of the family, and only knew these brothers 
as men. 

" ' Uncle Jerry ' recalled episodes, such as swimming the 
creek when they were boys together, and running some risk of 
getting drowned ; killing a cat in Smith's field ; the possession 
of a small rifle, and of a long peculiar skin, like a snake-skin, 
which he thought was now in the possession of Uncle Robert. 

" All these facts have been more or less completely verified. 
But the interesting thing is that his twin brother, from whom 
I got the watch, and with whom I was thus in a sort of com- 
munication, could not remember them all. He recollected 
something about swimming the creek, though he himself had 
merely looked on. He had a distinct recollection of having 
had the snake-skin, and of a box in which it was kept, though 
he does not know where it is now. But he altogether denied 
killing the cat, and could not recall Smith's field. 

"His memory, however, is decidedly failing him, and he 
was good enough to write to another brother, Frank, living in 
Cornwall, an old sea captain, and asked if he had any better 
remembrance of the facts — of course not giving any inexplic- 
able reasons for asking. The result of this inquiry was trium- 
29 



450 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

phantly to vindicate the existence of Smith's field as a place 
near their home, where they used to play, in Barking, Essex ; 
and the killing of a cat by another brother was also recol- 
lected ; while of the swimming of the creek, near a mill-race, 
full details were given, Frank and Jerry being the heroes of 
that foolhardy episode. 

" Some of the other facts given I have not yet been able to 
get verified. Perhaps there are as many unverified as verified. 
And some things appear, so far as I can make out, to be false. 
One little thing I could verify myself, and it is good inasmuch 
as no one is likely to have any recollection, even if they had 
any knowledge, of it. Phinuit told me to take the watch out 
of its case (it was the old-fashioned turnip variety) and ex- 
amine it in a good light afterwards, and I should see some 
nicks near the handle, which Jerry said he had cut into it with 
his knife. 

u Some faint nicks are there. I had never had the watch 
out of its case before ; being, indeed, careful neither to finger 
it myself nor to let anyone else finger it. 

" I never let Mrs. Piper in her waking state see the watch 
till quite towards the end of the time, when I purposely left 
it lying on my desk while she came out of the trance. Before 
long she noticed it, with natural curiosity, evidently becoming 
conscious of its existence then for the first time." ' 

This account may, indeed, conceivably be ex- 
plained as the result of a process of telepathic 
conveyance from Professor Lodge's mind of things 
heard in boyhood and long ago forgotten. Profes- 
sor Lodge himself, however, has no recollection of 
having heard of these incidents, and regards this 
explanation as extremely improbable. And it is 
clear that each fresh case to which this hypothesis 
has to be applied increases the difficulty of the ex- 
planation. Professor Lodge enumerates in the 

1 Proceedings, S. P. R., vol. vi., pp. 458-60 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 45 I 

English observations of 1888-9 no ^ ess than forty- 
one instances in which details were reproduced by 
Phinuit which were " unknown to, or forgotten by, 
or unknowable to, persons present." l Some of these 
incidents, no doubt, such as the episode of the red- 
stamped cheques in Mr. Clarke's case, readily sug- 
gest the telepathic transference of ideas latent in 
the sitter's mind. But in a few instances it is not 
merely improbable that the facts mentioned by 
Phinuit should at any time have been within the 
knowledge of any persons present at the sitting, 
but, as in the account just quoted, the mode of 
presentation of the facts and the attendant circum- 
stances certainly lend some additional weight to an 
alternative hypothesis, that of spirit communica- 
tion. No doubt in view of Phinuit's past history 
it is right that the evidence derived from dramatic 
personation should be subject to a considerable dis- 
count. And, indeed, partly on this account, and 
partly because the cases published up to the end of 
1892 which seemed to call for some other explana- 
tion than telepathy were few in number, the problem 
did not until recently present itself in an urgent 
form. Of late years, however, a considerable ad- 
dition has been made to the evidence. In February 
1892 there died in New York quite suddenly, at 
the age of thirty-three, one G. P., an author of 
some promise. G. P. had been known personally 
to Dr. Hodgson, and had two years before his 
death promised that if " still existing " after death 

1 Proc. S. P. P., vi., pp. 649-50. 



452 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

he would do his utmost to prove the fact to Dr. 
Hodgson, should the latter survive him. At the 
end of March, 1892, a friend of G. P.'s had a seance 
with Mrs. Piper, and communications were received 
purporting to come from G. P., "Phinuit" acting 
as intermediary. Later many of G. P.'s friends — 
mostly unknown to Mrs. Piper, and introduced 
under assumed names — had sittings, and many com- 
munications were received, G. P. himself professing 
both to speak and write through Mrs. Piper's 
organism. Some of these communications were of 
so personal a nature that they cannot be published, 
referring as they did to the private concerns of the 
sitters. But those who received these private com- 
munications appear to have been satisfied that they 
were such as would naturally have proceeded from 
G. P. himself ; and that in many cases the nature 
of the facts referred to rendered it difficult to con- 
ceive of any other source. But apart from these 
private utterances, the trance-personality has af- 
forded many more public proofs of its identity. 
Thus, the studs worn by one of the sitters, J. S., 
were identified by G. P. as having belonged to 
himself, and the statement made — unknown to J. S. 
but afterwards ascertained to be correct — that the 
studs had been taken from the dead body of G. P.'s 
step-mother. On another occasion the statement 
was made that G. P.'s father in New York — the 
sittings being held in Boston — had recently broken 
the negative of his son's photograph, an accident 
which the father had not even mentioned to his 



IMPERSONATION, OBSESSION, CLAIRVOYANCE. 453 

wife. On more than one occasion incidents taking 
place at a distance, and unknown to any one in the 
room, were described with approximate correct- 
ness. References were constantly made to G. P.'s 
affairs, his manuscripts and personal effects, which 
betrayed an intimate acquaintance with his own 
concerns and those of his friends. Many long 
conversations, partly by writing, and partly by 
voice, were held with Dr. Hodgson and other per- 
sons known to G. P. ; and throughout, the trance- 
intelligence showed an individual personality — a 
personality, moreover, which was regarded by his 
friends as resembling that of the deceased G. P. 
Finally, of all the numerous persons who were in- 
troduced at Mrs. Piper's seances under feigned 
names, it does not appear that G. P. ever failed to 
recognise and name any person whom G. P. had 
known in the flesh ; or ever pretended to recog- 
nise persons whom G. P. had not known. 

Taken altogether there can be no doubt that 
these trance-utterances do present many marks of 
authenticity ; and that even were it conceivable that 
the references to unknown facts and to private 
matters could be due to the emergence in the 
trance of knowledge normally acquired by Mrs. 
Piper in waking life, or to some process of telepathy 
from distant minds, the character and personal 
traits of the trance-intelligence would still remain 
as an indication of something beyond. 

However, the full evidence in this series of trance- 
communications has not yet, as I write these words. 



454 STUDIES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 

been completed ; and until this has been done, it 
would be premature to deliver a verdict. But this 
much seems clear, that the trances of Mrs. Piper 
furnish the most important evidence which the So- 
ciety for Psychical Research has yet adduced for 
the existence of something beyond telepathy, and 
afford a sufficient justification, if any were needed, 
for the labours of the past fifteen years. 

THE END 



INDEX. 



Address, automatic utterance com- 
monest form of inspirational, 32 

Aims of the Society for Psychical 
Research. 4 

Alteration in the weight of bodies, 

55 

Anaesthetic, chloroform as an, n 

Animals, symbolic, 343 

Apparitions, unrecognised, cases of, 
271 ; conveying news of death, 
cases of, 280 ; conveying other in- 
formation, cases of, 2S6 ; identified 
subsequently, cases of, 289 ; pre- 
monitory, 346 

Astral journeys, 179 

Attitude of Spiritualists, 19, 31 

Author explains his position, the, 7 

Automatic utterance the commonest 
form of inspirational address, 32 

Balfour, Hon. A. J., 4 

Banshees, and other symbolic 
sounds, 342 

Barrett, Professor W. F., and Spirit- 
ualism, 14 

Bernheim, Professor, of Nancy, 12 

Blavatsky, Madame, 40, 80, 105, 
177, 181, 188, 189 ; life of, 163 

Bodies, alteration in the weight of, 

Bofferijfo, Professor, 83 

Boswell, explanation of second-sight, 
1 

Braid, Dr., and hypnotism, 11 

"Brothers," Mr. Sinnett's explana- 
tion of the, 166 

Buckworth, and spirit-rapping, case 
of Charlotte, 126 

Buguet, exposure of, 93 

Charcot, Dr., 12 
" Charlie," the medium, 21 
Chloroform, discovery of , 11 ; draws 
attention from mesmerism, it 



Clairvoyance, belief in, by many ed- 
ucated persons, 1; 416, 421 

Classification of Spiritualism, 10 

Collective, hallucinations, 261 ; per- 
cipience, 265 

Comment of a London newspaper 
on mysterious noises, 1 

Committees of Investigation, Psychi- 
cal Research Society appoints six, 
4 ; field to be covered by them, 
4 ; spirit and method of, 5 

Congress petitioned to appoint a 
commission of investigation, 10 

Contact, movements of objects with- 
out, 55 

Consciousness, secondary, in the 
normal state, 375, 379 ; induced, 
387 ; in pathologic cases, 399 

Cook, Miss, 13, 59, 81 

Corner, (Mrs.) detected, 23 ; defence 
of, 23 

Coulomb (Mons. and Madame) and 
Blavatsky (Madame), 172 

Cox (Serjeant), as an investigator of 
Spiritualism, 16 ; founds Psycho- 
logical Society, 17 ; explanation of 
Spiritualism, 18 ; and the phenom- 
ena of Spiritualism, 35 

" Cracking," 9 

Crookes, Mr. William, 4 , investiga- 
tions in Spiritualism, 13, 53, 78, 
79 

Damodar, Mr., a theosophist, 179 et 

seq. 
Davis, Andrew J., Poughkeepsie 

seer, 39 
Death-lights and funeral processions, 

cases, 341 
Death-wraiths, belief in, by many 

educated persons, 1 
Deception, to be guarded against, 6 
Decrease in number of Spiritualists, 

2 



455 



456 



INDEX. 



DevacAan, 168 
Dhyan Chohasn, 169 
Direct spirit-writing, 67 
Disturbances in houses, cases of, 

134. et seq. 
Donkin, Dr. H. B. , and the medium 

Slade, 14 
Double, or Doppelgancer, the, 12 
Dreams, telepathic, 241 ; symbolic, 

344 ; 350 et seq. 

Eglinton, Mr., a medium, 82 
Elliotson, Dr., and hypnotism, II 
Esdaile, Dr., and hypnotism, 11 
Experiences of, Stainton Moses, 62 ; 

Mrs. Sidgwick, 87 
Experiments of, MM. Thury and 
de Gasparin, 43 ; Dr. Hare, 47 ; 
Dialectical Society, 49 ; Crook es, 
53 ; Zollner, 71 
Explanation from the author, 7 
Exposure of Buguet, 93 ; Mrs. Mel- 
lon, 82 ; medium trickery, 21 

Fairlamb, see Mellon 

Fay, Mrs. Eva, a medium, 81, 89 

Fechner, assists at Slade sittings, 15 

" Fetches," 346 

Fletcher, Mr. and Mrs. J. W., me- 
diums, 23 

Florentine, Abraham, a spirit, 127 

Formation of a cross described by 
Dr. Speer, 68 

Fox family, 9 

Fraud, a force in producing spurious 
marvels, 6 ; disinterested, 105 

Funeral processions and death- 
lights, cases, 341 

Gasparin, MM. Thury and de, ex- 
periments of, 43 
Ghosts, 268 et seq. 
Goodwin, Harvey, 4 
Gurney, Edmund, 4 

Hallucinations, telepathic, 234 et 
seq. ; collective, 261 

Handling of hot coals and other ob- 
jects, 58 

Hare, Dr., the American Spiritual- 
ist, 36, 38, 47, 55 

Harris, Thomas L., and his religion, 

39 
Haunted houses, cases of, 298 et 

seq. 



Hayden, Mrs., 11 

Hertz, Heinrich, 4 

Hodgson, Dr., 81, 85, 176, 177, 181, 
262, 451 

Home, Daniel Dunglas, 11, 13, 17, 
57, 58, 59 

Houses, cases of disturbances in, 
134 et seq. 

Huggins, Dr., and spiritualism, 12 

Hypnotism, 11 ; medical men in- 
terested in, 11 

Ideas and waking impressions, 

transference, 238 et seq. 
Impersonation, 416 
Induced secondary consciousness, 

387 
Inspirational address commonest 

form of automatic utterance, 32 
Introduction of objects at a seance, 

Investigation, spirit and methods of 
Psychical Society's Committees of, 

5 
" Isis Unveiled," 165 
James, Professor William, 4 
Jencken, Mrs., a medium, 83 
" John King," 22, 164 
Johnson, Dr., remark on second 

sight, 1 
Jones's, Sir W., opinion of Wamik, 

a Persian spirit, 30 
Journeys, astral, 179 

" Katie," a spirit form, 59 
" Knockings, Rochester," 9 
Koot Hoomi, 169 et seq. 

Lambelle, a trance orator, 34 ; ex- 
posed by Mr. Stock, 34 

Lankester, Professor Ray, and the 
medium Slade, 14, 81 

Letters, mysterious precipitation of, 

177 
Levitation of Mr. Home, 57, 69 
Liebault, Dr., 12 
Light, an account of a " test" seance 

in, 24, 27, 31 
Lights observed at a seance, 64 
Lindsay, evidence of the Master of, 

5i 
Lodge, Professor, 84 
Lombroso, Professor, 83 
London Dialectical Society, appoints 

a committee to investigate Spirit- 



INDEX. 



457 



ualism, 13 ; report of, 13 ; Experi- 
ments, 49 

Makatmas, 169 

Manifesto of Society for Psychical 
Research, 4 

Manvantara, 168 

Marvels, fraud a force in producing 
spurious, 6 

Materialisation, 59 

Medical men interested in hypno- 
tism, 11 

" Mediums," 9 ; detected in trickery 
by Dutch Spiritualists, 21 ; de- 
fence of, 22 

Mellon, Mrs., exposure of, 82 

Mesmerism, 11 ; discovery of chloro- 
form draws attention from, 11 

Methods of investigation of Psychi- 
cal Society's Committees of Re- 
search, 5 

Moses, Mr. Stainton, as a medium, 
16, 23, 38, 62, 81, 95, 125 

Morgan's, General, account of the 
Shrine miracle, 173 

Movements and other Results, pro- 
duction of, 218 

Movements of objects without con- 
tact, 55 

Mumler, spirit photographer, 93, 94 

Musical sounds at seances, 64 

Myers, F. W. H., 84 

Nirvana, 167 

Noises, a London newspaper on 
mysterious, 1 

Objects at a seance, introduction of, 

67 
Obsession, 416 
Ochorowicz, Dr., 85 
Olcott the Theosophist, 40, 105, 163, 

181 

Palladino, case of Eusapia, 83 
Pathologic cases in secondary con- 
sciousness, 399 
Phenomena of Spiritualism, Serjeant 

Cox on, 35 
Phenomena, Reichenbach's, 91 
Phenomena witnessed by, Mr. 
Crookes, 14; Professor Zollner, 
15 
Photography, spirit, 92 
" Pocha," spirit form of, 24 



Podmore, Mr. Austin, and slate 

writing, 102 
Poltergeists, 134 et sea. 
Pomar, Duke de Medina, 82 
" Possession," cases of spontaneous, 

435 
Pralaya, 169 
Precipitation of letters, mysterious, 

177 
Predictions, cases of auditory, 347 ; 

at seances, cases, 348 
Premonitions and previsions, 336 et 

set/. 
Premonitory apparitions, 346 
Presentiments, pseudo-, cases of, 

356 
Presidents of Society for Psychical 

Research, 4 
Previsions, premonitions and, 336 et 

seq. 
Production of movements and other 

results, 218 
Pseudo-presentiments, cases of, 356 
Psychical Research, Society of, 4 ; 

attitude of, 1S6 
Psychological Society, founded by 

Serjeant Cox, 17 ; object of, 17 

Reichenbach's, Baron K., phenom- 
ena, 91 

Re-incarnation, the doctrine of, 39 

Report of London Dialectical Soci- 
ety on Spiritualism, 13 

Research, Society of Psychical, 4 ; 
field covered by committees of, 4 

Revival of Spiritualism, 9 

Richet, Professor, and the case of 
Eusapia Palladino, 84 

Rita, the medium, detected, 21 

'•' Rochester knockings," 9 

Saadi, an ancient poet, appears to 
Spiritualists, 28 ; and Wamik, 30 

Scents, a form of manifestation at 
the Moses seances, 66 

Scheibner, Professor, assists at 
Slade's sittings, 15 

Seance, schoolboys hold a, 31 

Seances, held under "test" condi- 
tions, 24 ; cases of predictions at, 
348 ; musical sounds at, 64 ; ob- 
jects, 67 

Secondary Consciousness, 375 etseq. ; 
in the normal state, 379 ; induced, 
387 ; in pathologic cases, 399 



458 



INDEX. 



Second sight, Boswell's explanation 
of, I ; Dr. Johnson's remark on, 
i ; belief in, by many educated 
persons, I 
Self-induced trance, 32 
Sensitives, Reichenbach's, 91 
Shrine, phenomena of the, 173 ; de- 
scription of the, 176 
Sidgwick, Mrs., experiences, 42, 87, 

93, 214 

Sidgwick, Professor, 4, 82, 214 

Sinnett, Mr. A. P., his teach- 
ings, 166; and the "Brothers," 
166 

Slade, the medium, 15, 18 

Slate writing, 95 ; Mr. Austin Pod- 
more and, 102 ; Miss Stidolph and, 
103 

Society for Psychical Research, the 
founding of, 4 ; first manifesto of, 
4 ; Presidents of, 4 ; appoints six 
Committees of Inquiry, 4 ; general 
propositions, no 

Solovyoff, Mr., and Blavatsky, 189 

Speer's, Dr. and Mrs., notes of the 
Moses seances, 63 

Spirit and methods of Society for 
Psychical Research Committees of 
Investigation, 5 

Spirit form of "Pocha," the Indian 
girl, 24 

Spirit messages and Stainton Moses, 
125 

Spirit photography, 92 

Spirit rapping, case of Charlotte 
Buckworth, 126 

Spiritualism, revival of, 9 ; classifi- 
cation of, 10 ; Congress petitioned 
to investigate, 10 ; scientific inter- 
est in, it ; London Dialectical So- 
ciety's report on, 13 ; Crookes's 
investigations in, 13 

Spiritualists, decrease in numbers of, 
2; adopt hypnotism, 12; attitude 
in general of, 19, 31 ; detect me- 
diums, 21 

Stewart, Balfour, 4 



Stock, Mr. St. George, exposes Mr. 

Lambelle, 34 
Symbolic, animals, 343 ; dreams, 

344 

Tappan-Richmond, Mrs. Cora L. 
V., 33. 

Telepathic, hallucinations, 234 et 
seq. ; dreams, 241 

Thaw, Dr. Blair, and thought-trans- 
ference, 200 

Theosophical movement, history of, 
163 

Theosophical Society founded, 40 

Thought-transference, 195 et seq. ; 
in the normal state, 199 et seq. ; 
with hypnotised subjects, 213 ; at 
a distance, 219 ; in sleep, 212 et 
seq. ; apparent, 207 

Theosophists, 2 ; and re-incarna- 
tion, 40 

Thury and de Gasparin, experiments 
of, 43 

Trance, self-induced, 32 

Transference, thought-, 195 et seq. 

Transference of ideas and waking 
impressions, 238 

Trickery detected in mediums, 21 ; 
by Spiritualists, 79 

Varley, Cromwell, and Spiritualism, 

12, 37 
Visions, cases of, 348 

Wallace, Alfred Russell, and Spirit- 
ualism, 12, 93 

Wamik, a Persian spirit, 31 ; and 
Sir W. Jones, 31 

Weber, Professor, assists at Slade 
sittings, 15, 67, 78 

Williams, the medium, detected, 21 

Wood, Miss, the medium, 24, 87, 90 

Writing, direct spirit, 67 

Zollner's sittings with medium Slade, 
15, 7i 



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